Local Road Projects Moving Along, Mayor Says
August 2, 2019 at 11:41 p.m.
By David [email protected]
In his update on U.S. 30, Mayor Joe Thallemer said four preliminary potential options will be presented at a public meeting in September. Details on the meeting will be announced once they are finalized, but it “probably” will be on a Wednesday night.
“There’s four options. The first option is to do nothing. The second option is to (revamp the existing U.S. 30), creating a limited-access freeway on the existing roadway. The third option is to go north around the city. The fourth option is to go south around the city,” Thallemer said.
He said the options were not very detailed at this point and are preliminary, but “the importance of these meetings is to let the public see what the options are and let the public also understand how these options may impact traffic and existing rights-of-way and businesses and residential areas. There certainly will be some impact.”
The U.S. 30 Coalition and local legislatures are trying to get the state on board to address the growing, heavily-trafficked highway and provide funding. It is not a state project at the moment. The first step for the Indiana Department of Transportation and the state would be to do an environmental study. The coalition includes cities and counties from Valparaiso to Fort Wayne.
It is a huge project and the public listening sessions are the first step in trying to come up with some “preferred” details, Thallemer said at Friday’s Board of Works meeting.
“No preference is given to any of them, other than I would say it probably doesn’t make sense to not do anything. So I think I’m down to at least three options,” Thallemer said.
At the public meeting, there will be some updated safety information, including traffic data and crash statistics.
“Most important, we’re just going to lay some maps out and give people the opportunity to see how they could be impacted. Not making any decisions. Just a meeting to sit down and see what our options are,” Thallemer said.
He said it was important to get input from the public on U.S. 30, which will change, “so we’ve got to develop a vision of what we want U.S. 30 to be, and I think this will go a long way to getting us started locally.”
Thallemer also said he talked with the INDOT’s project engineer Friday morning about “near-future projects” – improvements to Anchorage Road, Parker Street widening and U.S. 30 road repair.
“Those projects will be starting this fall. Late summer, early fall,” he said. “They’re also doing similar road repair on U.S. 30 that they’re doing on State Road 15. Again, I don’t know the scope of that other than I assume, unfortunately, that U.S. 30 will be down to a single lane in some spots.”
He asked for the public’s patience.
“I would certainly make sure that folks understand that when school starts back up, still being in August, and vacations and traffic to and from work, State Road 15 hopefully will be done, but then U.S. 30 is going to be impacted, as well as Anchorage and Parker,” Thallemer said.
“These are all INDOT initiated, paid for, contracted and administered projects that we are privy to, obviously, and we do have some input ... but this State Road 15 project was maybe a month notice, six weeks, so I’m giving everybody notice on U.S. 30. I know we’ve talked about Anchorage and Parker, but we haven’t been sure when all of that would happen.”
He said they’re important and necessary projects.
City Planner Jeremy Skinner said with work on U.S. 30, there will be many delays. He said he was having a preconstruction meeting with INDOT “that we will try to work with them on: which, Anchorage or Parker; at what time; what the timing is; within the confines of what they have to have accomplished for their contract.”
He said the city has its sanitary sewer project going on in the Airport Industrial Park, so the city will work with INDOT “on the timing of how we do Anchorage and Parker because we know we have roads out there that are being impacted and being closed, so we’ll work with them, try to coordinate that as much as we can, to make sure people can get in and out, but the reality is it’s construction. There’s going to be delays.”
The Anchorage and Parker projects will be done this year, with Skinner estimating they’ll be done between August and November.
The city has two other road projects that Skinner then touched on – North Pointe Drive and CR 300N.
North Pointe Drive improvement work is scheduled to start the second week of August. Skinner said they’re coordinating with Harrison Elementary School on pick-up and drop-off times of the children within that area. Warsaw Schools starts the school year Aug. 14.
The CR 300N project, which includes a roundabout, is scheduled to begin around September. Most of CR 300N down to the bridge will be closed while it’s under construction, but traffic at the intersection of 300N and Shelden Street will try to be maintained.
“We’re just trying to let folks know what’s going on. These projects are necessary. Some are city projects, some aren’t. Some are INDOT. Then you get your water projects and difficulties with some of our storm and sanitary lines as we have failures and have to react to that,” Thallemer said, adding that the repairs are necessary and asking for the public’s patience again.
“Slow down, especially through construction sites. Pay attention to signs, flaggers, restrictions. That’s always a big thing this time of year, safety wise. If you can avoid them, avoid them. If you can’t, drive through there cautiously and slow down and pay attention, there’s a lot of workers walking around,” Skinner said.
Thallemer began his comments on the road projects with a quick mention of INDOT’s work on Ind. 15.
“(The) State Road 15 project has been a little bit of a nuisance, if you will, but nevertheless important to get that done. It’s their funding. I talked with them about just maintaining safety because it’s a very busy road. They certainly have understanding of that,” he said.
With the national ski show competition next weekend at Hidden Lake, hosted by the Lake City Skiers, Thallemer said there will be a lot of traffic on Ind. 15. He said he asked INDOT to stop work for a day, Friday, and clear the road so the road has a safer approach. He said he was told preliminarily that INDOT would honor that request so between Friday, Aug. 9 to Sunday, Aug. 11, “there shouldn’t be any cones or construction on State Road 15, which is a good thing.”
In his update on U.S. 30, Mayor Joe Thallemer said four preliminary potential options will be presented at a public meeting in September. Details on the meeting will be announced once they are finalized, but it “probably” will be on a Wednesday night.
“There’s four options. The first option is to do nothing. The second option is to (revamp the existing U.S. 30), creating a limited-access freeway on the existing roadway. The third option is to go north around the city. The fourth option is to go south around the city,” Thallemer said.
He said the options were not very detailed at this point and are preliminary, but “the importance of these meetings is to let the public see what the options are and let the public also understand how these options may impact traffic and existing rights-of-way and businesses and residential areas. There certainly will be some impact.”
The U.S. 30 Coalition and local legislatures are trying to get the state on board to address the growing, heavily-trafficked highway and provide funding. It is not a state project at the moment. The first step for the Indiana Department of Transportation and the state would be to do an environmental study. The coalition includes cities and counties from Valparaiso to Fort Wayne.
It is a huge project and the public listening sessions are the first step in trying to come up with some “preferred” details, Thallemer said at Friday’s Board of Works meeting.
“No preference is given to any of them, other than I would say it probably doesn’t make sense to not do anything. So I think I’m down to at least three options,” Thallemer said.
At the public meeting, there will be some updated safety information, including traffic data and crash statistics.
“Most important, we’re just going to lay some maps out and give people the opportunity to see how they could be impacted. Not making any decisions. Just a meeting to sit down and see what our options are,” Thallemer said.
He said it was important to get input from the public on U.S. 30, which will change, “so we’ve got to develop a vision of what we want U.S. 30 to be, and I think this will go a long way to getting us started locally.”
Thallemer also said he talked with the INDOT’s project engineer Friday morning about “near-future projects” – improvements to Anchorage Road, Parker Street widening and U.S. 30 road repair.
“Those projects will be starting this fall. Late summer, early fall,” he said. “They’re also doing similar road repair on U.S. 30 that they’re doing on State Road 15. Again, I don’t know the scope of that other than I assume, unfortunately, that U.S. 30 will be down to a single lane in some spots.”
He asked for the public’s patience.
“I would certainly make sure that folks understand that when school starts back up, still being in August, and vacations and traffic to and from work, State Road 15 hopefully will be done, but then U.S. 30 is going to be impacted, as well as Anchorage and Parker,” Thallemer said.
“These are all INDOT initiated, paid for, contracted and administered projects that we are privy to, obviously, and we do have some input ... but this State Road 15 project was maybe a month notice, six weeks, so I’m giving everybody notice on U.S. 30. I know we’ve talked about Anchorage and Parker, but we haven’t been sure when all of that would happen.”
He said they’re important and necessary projects.
City Planner Jeremy Skinner said with work on U.S. 30, there will be many delays. He said he was having a preconstruction meeting with INDOT “that we will try to work with them on: which, Anchorage or Parker; at what time; what the timing is; within the confines of what they have to have accomplished for their contract.”
He said the city has its sanitary sewer project going on in the Airport Industrial Park, so the city will work with INDOT “on the timing of how we do Anchorage and Parker because we know we have roads out there that are being impacted and being closed, so we’ll work with them, try to coordinate that as much as we can, to make sure people can get in and out, but the reality is it’s construction. There’s going to be delays.”
The Anchorage and Parker projects will be done this year, with Skinner estimating they’ll be done between August and November.
The city has two other road projects that Skinner then touched on – North Pointe Drive and CR 300N.
North Pointe Drive improvement work is scheduled to start the second week of August. Skinner said they’re coordinating with Harrison Elementary School on pick-up and drop-off times of the children within that area. Warsaw Schools starts the school year Aug. 14.
The CR 300N project, which includes a roundabout, is scheduled to begin around September. Most of CR 300N down to the bridge will be closed while it’s under construction, but traffic at the intersection of 300N and Shelden Street will try to be maintained.
“We’re just trying to let folks know what’s going on. These projects are necessary. Some are city projects, some aren’t. Some are INDOT. Then you get your water projects and difficulties with some of our storm and sanitary lines as we have failures and have to react to that,” Thallemer said, adding that the repairs are necessary and asking for the public’s patience again.
“Slow down, especially through construction sites. Pay attention to signs, flaggers, restrictions. That’s always a big thing this time of year, safety wise. If you can avoid them, avoid them. If you can’t, drive through there cautiously and slow down and pay attention, there’s a lot of workers walking around,” Skinner said.
Thallemer began his comments on the road projects with a quick mention of INDOT’s work on Ind. 15.
“(The) State Road 15 project has been a little bit of a nuisance, if you will, but nevertheless important to get that done. It’s their funding. I talked with them about just maintaining safety because it’s a very busy road. They certainly have understanding of that,” he said.
With the national ski show competition next weekend at Hidden Lake, hosted by the Lake City Skiers, Thallemer said there will be a lot of traffic on Ind. 15. He said he asked INDOT to stop work for a day, Friday, and clear the road so the road has a safer approach. He said he was told preliminarily that INDOT would honor that request so between Friday, Aug. 9 to Sunday, Aug. 11, “there shouldn’t be any cones or construction on State Road 15, which is a good thing.”
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