Dubois County approves road closure for Crossvine Solar work, safety concerns

Dubois County commissioners approved a two-week closure of County Road 500 West between 750 South and 900 South so underground utility work can move ahead for the AES Crossvine Solar project, a move driven by safety concerns as truck traffic and construction activity tightened conditions on nearby rural roads.

County Highway Engineer Levi Leffert said the closure was recommended for safety, not convenience. He said the project area was already harder to navigate because of construction, and the county will drop the speed limit from 45 mph to 35 mph while work continues. Warning signs are to go up on affected roads and at the intersection of 750 South and 500 West, where westbound drivers approaching 500 West have limited visibility because of increased truck movement.

Leffert said the county’s plan was built to keep emergency vehicles moving, preserve at least one access point for property owners and avoid any disruption to school bus routes. The detour will use US 231, which has reopened to two lanes of traffic, giving the county a main bypass while the closure is in place.

The road action sits inside a much larger dispute over Crossvine, a planned AES project west of the Huntingburg Regional Airport that company filings say was being acquired from Lightsource bp. State regulatory filings describe it as an 85-megawatt alternating-current solar facility paired with a 340-megawatt-hour battery storage system, equal to 85 megawatts of four-hour discharge power. AES has said the project is expected to come online by mid-2027.

The county has spent months fielding resident complaints about safety, communication and the battery storage component. In April, Commissioner Chad Blessinger said he found no evidence the project was operating outside permitted parameters and that it remained within its original site boundary. Even so, residents have continued to push for tougher local rules on setbacks, emergency response and decommissioning, while commissioners have pointed to the project’s construction jobs and future tax revenue.

The tension is not limited to the county line. Huntingburg approved a solar moratorium in November 2025 within its zoning jurisdiction, which reaches to County Road 500 on the west and County Road 800 on the south. In that climate, commissioners also pressed AES to buy and install enforceable warning signs for the construction area, then return them to county ownership after the project ends, a sign that local officials expect traffic and safety concerns to remain tied to Crossvine well beyond this temporary closure.