M. Sensibar, who has charge of the grading operation, said today that a dinkey car line³ was being installed all along the route and three grading machines would be at work in a day or two at three different points on the right of way.

 As soon as the frost is out of the ground the contractor will fill to grade all settled or sunken portions of the graded right of way in the vicinity of Wycliff⁴ and Dune park, where the road crosses a number of swamps.  As soon as the roadway is brought up to grade, the General Construction company will resume the construction of the concrete roadway which work was suspended when cold weather set in last fall.

 It is the intention of the contractor to have the highway completed and opened for traffic by May 1, Mr. Sensibar said.

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¹former village at and north of the eastern Midwest Steel entrance / the grade level Port of Indiana entrance / Wilson Road
²village between S.R. 149 and the eastern Bethlehem Steel entrance; it used to also extend north of the railroad tracks.
³another railroad
⁴Ogden Dunes; there were several ways to spell Wickliffe.

 The old route is to be abandoned.  The new right of way will be about 1,200 feet long.

 The state highway commission shortly will call for bids on the construction of the Gary section of Dunes Highway from the intersection, with Gleason road, 1,000 feet west of Aetna, to the western end of the paved section of the highway in the eastern part of the old town of Miller.  The section to be paved is two miles in length and follows the south side of the interurban tracks all the way.  It includes the viaduct which is to be built over the B. and O. tracks, but the viaduct will be let separately from the road construction.

 The state highway commission program calls for the construction of the Aetna-Miller section of the highway and of the viaduct⁶ during the coming season.

 Work on the Gary-Baileytown section is progressing rapidly.  Only about two miles of the roadway remain to be graded west of Baileytown and the work is not difficult.  The General Construction company will resume the laying of the concrete roadway in a few weeks and the highway will be open for traffic between Miller and Michigan City by May 1, it was said.

 Between the end of the highway at Miller and the intersection with Gleason road the temporary highway will cross the interurban tracks twice⁷ until Section D is completed, after which there will be no grade crossing of any kind between Gary and Michigan City.

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⁵I think this refers to the current street which connects Hobart Road to U.S. 12.  If so, it obviously wasn't completely abandoned, though it was by the state highway department.
⁶Ha
⁷One crossing being at Utah Street and the other at Hobart Road, as the South Shore was not elevated there yet.

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 The nature of the country through which the new highway passes and the difficulties encountered in making a lasting road through swamps and sand dunes have been set forth in the following article published in the last issue of the "Concrete Highway Magazine," a publication devoted to the technical side of highway construction.

 The Dunes, the most interesting work of nature in northern Indiana, until now have long been cut off from thousands of people who would have gladly visited them.  Construction on three sections of the road was carried on in 1922.  Owing to difficulties in obtaining rights of way, construction on the fourth stretch was delayed, but will be under contract early this year.

 This road is known as federal aid project No. 31.  It is paid for jointly by the federal government and the state of Indiana.  In all there will be about twenty-five miles of paving on the dunes highway, all concrete.  The elimination of railroad crossings has delayed the work considerably.

 The highway has been carved through a country almost the same as it was a century ago--a country that has retained its primeval beauty.  The highway is twenty feet in width.

 The increasing interest in the dunes region and its unique character has brought forth a proposal that a part be set aside for a national park.  Pending action on this, steps are being taken to preserve several small areas from encroaching industry.

 Fine sand, blown up from the lake shore, has formed the dunes.  Once built up, they migrate, as sand from the windward side is blown over the top and deposited on the lee side.  The constant movement continues until new barriers nearer shore check the wind action and increasing vegetation anchors the sand.

 The dune area extends a mile or more back from the shore.  Lovers of nature will find in this region many matters of interest--from the prickly pear cactus of the desert to the tamarack swamp of the north; from the "singing sand" along the shore to the quaking bog found inland, from active moving dune to the oak-flowers.

 Because of the unusual character of the country unusual construction problems are encountered.  Especially on section A, extending 6.8 miles eastward from Miller, the first town east of Gary, typical dunes topography was encountered.  On this section, near the west end of the job, the road crosses a long marsh and then cuts across alternate sand ridges and marshes.

 In these swampy areas there is a layer of peat, slowly built up through the years.  Below this is the fine dune sand.  For the first two or three miles the pavement rests upon a fill of about five feet placed directly upon the peat bog.  To obtain material for this fill a deep ditch was excavated along the site for the ambankment with an Osgood convertible shovel and dragline bucket.  The peat or muck was used in building up the shoulders of the embankment and the sand was placed under the road way.

 To minimize the effect of uneven settlement, the west 4,500 feet of embankment was left unpaved for the winter.  The remainder of the fill made last year was far enough away from the ditch so that it was held safe to pave at once.  Test pits were dug through the fill on the west and to the original ground level at a number of points at which levels had been taken in cross-sectioning.  A small opening to this surface was then boarded in, so that settlement could be determined by future levels.  Soundings also will be made in the ditch to learn whether there has been any material sidewise movement due to the weight of the embankment.

 This winter the General Construction company of Gary, the contractor on Section A, is planning to carry on heavy grading operations so that concreting can be started early this season.  At the 1922 paving work the road meets the sand ridges.  From then on to the end of the section, a distance of about 3.4 miles these low hills alternate with peat marshes.  Cuts of about twenty-five feet must be made and the material hauled to raise the road across the swamps.  The largest swamp on the eastern half of the job is the Calumet marsh at the Dunes Park railroad station.⁸  This marsh feeds the Little Calumet river, although not more than a mile back from Lake Michigan.  Cut off by the dunes, this sluggish stream flows somewhat away from the lake, continues westward and empties into the lake at South Chicago.

 Bar re-enforcements, weighing 56 pounds per 100 square feet, are used in all slabs over the marshes to the concrete together in case of unequal settlement.  Elsewhere a plain 1:2:3 concrete slab is specified.

 Provision has been made for the average volume of commercial and pleasure traffic that will undoubtedly use the highway by making the concrete twenty feet wide on all sections.  It is seven inches thick at the sides and eight at the center.  Following standard Indiana practice, no expansion joints are installed, and five steel bars are placed in the concrete at each construction joint as dowels to keep the joints even.  These bars are wrapped to prevent bond with the concrete.

 To insure a smooth riding surface the fresh concrete is tested with an eight-foot straight edge from a bridge by the inspector.  Any inequalities are remedied while the concrete is still workable.  Lakewood finishing machines strike off, tamp and belt the concrete.

 The water supply for all purposes on section A was supplied through the use of four or five sand points, forced down to a depth of ten or fifteen feet.  Each consists of a pointed cylindrical screen, two and one-half inches in diameter, and is connected to the pump by a length of one and one-half inch pipe.  Plenty of water is available at that depth, as it is filtered through the sand before reaching the screens.

 An industrial railway outfit is used on each of the three jobs for transporting dry batches of sand, coarse aggregate and cement to the mixer.  In fact, this method of hauling was used practically exclusively, as there was no existing road for part of the distance and the fine sand soil put truck operation out of the question.  The few grades made the industrial haul especially efficient.

 On sections B and C, the tunnel method of loading aggregates was employed, while on section A, a locomotive crane hauled materials to steel loading bins.  A Koehring 21 E paver mixes the concrete on each job.  Lakewood cars are used on two jobs, and Western cars on the third.  In all cases, each car truck carries two tipover batch boxes, which are lifted and dumped by a hoist attached to the mixer frame.

 Already a considerable part of the Dunes Highway is in use.  The Chicago Heights Coal Company, contractor for section D had eight and one-half miles completed by the middle of October, and much of it was open to traffic.  The part east of Michigan City, section C, was completed last year by the Municipal Contracting and Supply company.  As soon as the remaining gaps are closed, a long needed readjustment of traffic routes around the end of Lake Michigan is certain to be made to take advantage of this fine stretch of road.

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⁸Wrong.  Dune Park, not the Dunes Park (at Tremont or Portchester.)

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 Property owners at Baillytown, who have persistently refused to give their land for the right of way may rest content.  A bill to give the state highway commission the power of eminent domain with power to condemn lands for the right of way of state highways was passed by both houses, but in the hurry and confusion of the last minute Lt. Gov. Branch neglected to sign the bill before adjournment.  This kills the bill and it will not become a law.

 The bill carried a provision for the highway commission to pave the strip of about a mile within the city limits of Michigan City past the Indiana State prison.⁹  This, of course, is likewise killed.

 The grading of the highway across the Dune Park swamps is now nearing completion.  The contractor has reached the line of the first tract, whose owner refuses to allow the highway to pass over his land.

 News that the bill had passed both houses brought joy to the hearts of the promoters of the highway.  Now, however, the situation is quite perplexing.

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⁹The Dunes Highway has since been rerouted.

 Commissioner Pollentzke returned from Valparaiso Tuesday evening, and said that the board had taken no action on the request of the state highway commission to pay for the lands of the three objectors on the Dunes Highway.  The matter had been taken under consideration, but Attorney Crumpacker was not satisfied as to the legality of such action.  The amount involved, according to G. R. Williams, attorney for the land owners, was about $3,500.  While the saving to Porter county in repairs of other routes would pay this cost in less than three months, and relieve the state of its embarrassment, just how to do it is yet to be decided.  Somebody must raise the money.  If the county cannot, then private subscription will have to.

e-mail	Dunes Hwy. press	Dunes Hwy.	H.S.O.D.	roads	old newspaper articles on-line

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This page is at https://members.tripod.com/~Ogden_Dunes/duneshwy/dh9.html.

Posted 13th August, 1999. Reposted 13th April, 2004, after being knocked off-line four years ago.