Ferdinand sets June 22 start for Vienna Drive road work

Vienna Drive will close to through traffic during construction hours beginning June 22, but Ferdinand said the road will reopen each day after work ends, likely between 4:30 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. The first phase of the town’s three-part road improvement project is designed to keep daytime traffic out of the work zone while preserving evening access through the corridor.

Detours and posted signs will guide motorists around the closure. That matters for commuters, families making school runs, deliveries and quick local trips through Ferdinand, because the town is limiting the disruption to work hours rather than shutting the road down around the clock. Even with that schedule, anyone who regularly uses Vienna Drive should expect daytime delays until the phase is finished.

The June 18 notice also fits into a larger pattern of road and utility work already moving through the town government this spring. On April 13, Ferdinand officials opened bids for Community Crossings Matching Grant 2026-01 and selected Knies Construction as the preferred contractor after rejecting Koberstein Contracting’s bid because it could not be certified on State Form 96. Town Council President Kenneth Sicard said multiple meetings had already taken place before that decision.

By May 20, town officials said they were meeting with the contractor to review traffic flow and phasing for a Community Crossings project, signaling that the Vienna Drive work was being built into a broader schedule rather than handled as an isolated patch job. At the same meeting, Ferdinand also reported progress on a Safe Streets and Roads for All planning grant and an updated ADA transition plan, both of which point to a wider push on safety and accessibility.

The funding backdrop is significant in Dubois County. Ferdinand received $776,949 in the 2024 fall Community Crossings round, part of $3.26 million awarded to Dubois County communities. Statewide, Community Crossings has provided more than $1.8 billion in matching funds since 2016, giving towns like Ferdinand a way to address aging streets without carrying the full cost alone.

Vienna Drive has seen road-related disruption before. In August 2023, the intersection of Vienna Drive and 22nd Street closed for a culvert replacement project, showing that the corridor has already been part of Ferdinand’s maintenance cycle. The June 22 start now adds another phase to that effort, with the town trying to balance short-term inconvenience against longer-term improvements in mobility, drainage and street condition.