BLOOMINGTON — Pushed back by weather delays, Indiana Department of Transportation officials hope to begin chip-seal operations on State Road 135 this week.

Maintenance crews from the Martinsville unit are being scheduled to chip-seal 12 miles of State Road 135 from Nashville to Morgantown on Thursday, Monday and Tuesday, May 19, 23 and 24, weather permitting. Work will begin in the northbound lane of State Road 135 a mile north of State Road 46 in Brown County and proceed to the closed Indian Creek bridge in Morgan County.

A tentative schedule calls for a second round of chip-sealing on State Road 135 between State Road 46 in Brown County and S.R. 58 at Freetown. Resurfacing those 42.6 miles will require four days.

After Nashville to Freetown, chip-seal work on State Road 135 will move to north of the west junction of S.R. 252 at Morgantown to the east junction of State Road 252 at Trafalgar. Those 11.8 miles will require two days.

Chip-sealing coats the highway with liquid asphalt, sealing pavement cracks and protecting the roadbed from harmful ultraviolet rays. This extends the life of the road and lowers overall maintenance costs, INDOT said in a press release.