Old highway surface being removed from the Indiana Toll Road is being put to good use. Some of the asphalt is being ground up and used in the mix for new asphalt on the Toll Road while some of the material is being donated to LaPorte County for use in surfacing all 200 miles of the county’s dirt roads.

‘‘It’s nice that it doesn’t go into a landfill,’’ said Gene Yarkie, vice president of operations for Rieth-Riley Construction Co. Inc., the primary contractor for the more than 70 miles of resurfacing now taking place on the Toll Road from the 20 to 92 mile markers.

Yarkie said work on the new Toll Road surface has begun in LaPorte County. Since April, about 13 miles of old asphalt has been replaced with new asphalt, Yarkie said.

Rehabilitating more than 50 bridges is included in the $200 million Toll Road project to be completed next year.
‘‘We got a ways to go,’’ Yarkie said.

Meanwhile, LaPorte County Commissioners President Dave Decker said millings, or crushed asphalt, have already been laid and compacted on several of the more heavily traveled dirt roads to provide a basic surface.

A decision will be made a year later on whether asphalt or some other paving material should be added to the aggregate surface, he said. ‘‘It depends on the use of the road,’’ Decker said.

Snyder Road near Otis is among the dirt roads being surfaced with the millings.

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