Dubois County Plans 72-Mile Road Treatment Season, Multiple Bridge Closures Ahead

Bridge 78 on County Road 600 West shuts down Wednesday, April 9, for up to 60 days while contractors rehabilitate the Patoka River crossing at Division Road; no official detour has been designated, leaving commuters, farm haulers, school bus coordinators, and emergency responders to find alternate routes on their own.

County Highway Engineer Levi Leffert announced the 2026 road treatment season at recent public meetings, presenting a master plan covering roughly 72.55 miles of Dubois County roadway. The program includes asphalt overlays, Rejuvtec applications, chip seal and chip seal patching, gravel-to-chip-seal conversions, and rubberized crack sealant, a material the department is adding to its toolkit for the first time this year.

The Bridge 78 closure is the season's most immediate disruption. While Leffert informed the contractor that the crossing serves as a main route and that any extension would burden the public, no earlier reopening is guaranteed. Drivers who regularly cross the Patoka River at that location will need to reroute via longer county or state roads for the duration, with no signed alternate path to follow.

More closures follow in May. Bridges 107 and 240 are scheduled to close simultaneously in early May for a four-to-five-week period, meaning two corridors will be offline at the same time. Farmers moving equipment between fields, commercial delivery drivers, and school transportation planners operating near those bridges should factor the overlap into scheduling now, before barricades go up. Bridge 119, meanwhile, is running ahead of schedule and could reopen within approximately three weeks, offering one piece of good news amid a compressed construction calendar.

The 72.55-mile treatment program takes a targeted approach, prioritizing specific corridors and smaller structures rather than blanket resurfacing. Rejuvtec and rubberized crack sealant work at the pavement surface and molecular level to extend road life and cut long-term maintenance costs, while gravel-to-chip-seal conversions will upgrade unpaved segments the county has flagged for improvement.

Starting April 9, the Bridge 78 crossing on County Road 600 West should be treated as fully closed with no through access. Barricades and signage will mark all active closure sites, but because no official detour exists for Bridge 78, drivers should map alternates before departing. Commercial haulers, bus route operators, and anyone needing to discuss access or routing around an active closure can contact the Dubois County Highway Department directly. Current closure notices and reopening updates are available through the county's road information pages.