Download Even faster on U.S. 31?

Even faster on U.S. 31?
Businesses want more upgrades on highway to Indy
Posted: Sunday, January 18, 2015 5:00 am | Updated: 11:03 am, Thu Jan 22, 2015.
By Kevin Allen South Bend Tribune
The new-and-improved U.S. 31 — an interstate-quality highway between Plymouth and
South Bend — opened to much fanfare last summer.
Drivers traveling along the 20-mile stretch no longer had to wait for stoplights, slow
down for passes through towns or deal with traffic entering from adjacent driveways. The
road project, years in the making, was finally complete.
But that doesn't mean people are completely satisfied.
While the Indiana Department of Transportation has upgraded U.S. 31 between Plymouth
and South Bend, built a bypass around Kokomo and is scheduled to finish improvements
later this year north of Indianapolis, some local residents, businesses and government
officials want the entire highway to look like an interstate between South Bend and the
state capital.
"People are excited about the improvements that have been made so far. Those three
pieces help an awful lot, and we're really grateful to the state for making it a priority," said
Jeff Rea, president and CEO of the St. Joseph County Chamber of Commerce. "We just want
to get to the finish line."
The three improved segments of U.S. 31 cover 46 miles of the roughly 125 miles between
Interstate 465 in Indianapolis and U.S. 20 in South Bend. The changes also have eliminated
31 stoplights, 123 intersections, 668 driveways and two rail crossings from the route,
according to the U.S. 31 Coalition, a group formed in 1990 to advocate for the highway
upgrades.
But there are still seven stoplights, 105 intersections, 256 driveways and two rail crossings
remaining.
"Those are barriers in the minds of people who move product," Rea said. "We want to
continue to chip away at that."
People who work in distribution and warehousing typically say the South Bend area would
be far more attractive as a logistics hub if U.S. 31 were an interstate-style highway along its
full length to Indianapolis, according to Rea.
Ken Cubberley, president of Keystone Logistics in South Bend, said the improvements so
far have made a difference. For example, they've knocked about 15 minutes off a truck
driver's trip from South Bend to Indianapolis.
"When you're looking at drivers' logs, and time is vital to them, it adds that much more
available time to their ability to do their job," Cubberley said. There would be more
time savings with further upgrades, he said, commenting, "It's long overdue."
The time saved by driving on a highway with limited access points is one factor, but safety
is another.
"We love the three parts, don't get me wrong," said Dennis Falkenberg, executive director
of the U.S. 31 Coalition. "One of the concerns is that after you come off one of those freeway
segments onto an older segment, people are still driving as if they're on a freeway, and
maybe a tractor pulls out from one of the farm fields."
INDOT spokesman Will Wingfield said the state is committed to making the full distance of
U.S. 31 a nonstop highway, and officials are identifying projects along the road that fit into
the agency's existing budget. For example, construction is slated to begin later this year on
a new interchange at Indiana 28 in Tipton County, about 8 miles south of the new Kokomo
bypass.
"U.S. 31 between South Bend and Indianapolis is one of a few projects where Governor
Pence has said the state will 'finish what we started,' " Wingfield said.
State Sen. Joe Zakas, R-Granger, has introduced a bill in this year's General Assembly that
could help set the stage for those upgrades. The legislation would require INDOT to
perform the necessary studies, such as environmental impact statements, and determine
additional rights of way that would be needed to make projects "shovel ready" when
funding becomes available.
The three segments of U.S. 31 that have been or are in the process of being upgraded cost
$1.16 billion, including land purchases, engineering and construction, Wingfield said. That
money came from the state's Major Moves Construction Fund , which was fed by proceeds
from the $3.8 billion lease of the Indiana Toll Road to a private operator in 2006.
The other $2.6 billion from the Toll Road lease has been either devoted to other projects or
disbursed to local governments, so that pot of money isn't available for more work on U.S.
31.
Falkenberg said cost estimates for upgrading the rest of U.S. 31 range between $800 million
and $900 million. He acknowledged that the state has a long list of infrastructure needs,
and INDOT has limited budgets. He said state lawmakers are looking at potential
alternatives for funding road projects.
Rea said one solution for finishing the highway as an interstate-quality freeway might be in
tackling intersections one at a time, as INDOT is doing with the Indiana 28 interchange in
Tipton County. That approach would take years if not decades, of course, but it would keep
progress along U.S. 31 moving forward.