Along the 6 miles of U.S. 30 near Warsaw, there’s an average of one wreck every other day, Mayor Joe Thallemer told the Traffic Commission Wednesday.
“And that’s just unacceptable,” he said to the commission as part of his update on the state’s study of U.S. 30.
The statistic was provided to him from Warsaw Police Department Capt. Joel Beam.
“Mayor, I pulled some stats, just to take a look at U.S. 30 from last year to this year,” Beam said. “And in the month of June we had 21 accidents on U.S. 30. Last year at the same time, it was 11. So that’s pretty significant.”
One of the biggest things the WPD has to deal with is manpower. With the most recent hiring of Nickolas Shaw as the department’s 40th officer, Beam said that’s the most officers they’ve had in a long time.
“And with that, we can provide more enforcement on U.S. 30,” he said. “In June of last year, we had 88 citations written during that month. During the same time this year, we wrote 279. We are aggressively seeking enforcement on U.S. 30 to make it safer.”
Thallemer said what was learned from the Indiana Department of Transportation’s “Purpose and Need” study of U.S. 30 is that the average speeds along U.S. 30 East are actually a little bit below the speed limit and that’s because there has to be a lot of slowing down at the traffic signals, so they’re taking average speeds throughout the whole corridor.
“So, speeding is always a concern, especially in a congested area, and that just makes it even more important that we enforce the speeding. But, the bigger issues are red light runnings, both those folks passing through and folks trying to get across 30,” Thallemer said.
He said it was difficult to enforce because the number of people out on U.S. 30.
“I think it’s critical that we have a presence out there and we continue to enforce. It’s going to be six, seven years before we can get anything tangible done or started. Not done, but started, but we’re going to do everything we can to speed that up, but in the meantime everybody’s got to cooperate, be careful. The accident rates are just astounding,” Thallemer said, pointing out that it’s not just in Warsaw but also Columbia City and other urbanized areas along U.S. 30 East where 70% of the accidents occur.
Earlier in Thallemer’s comments, he said he sat down and talked with the city’s law enforcement about the Purpose and Need study that’s expected to be finalized by the end of this month. They talked about safety being a huge factor, congestion and unsafe intersections.
“I think out of 24 intersections in the eastern part of U.S. 30, four of them were considered unsatisfactory and two of them are right here in our community,” he said.
He suggested everyone get on the ProPELUS30 website (propelus30.com) and review the Purpose and Need study’s details.
“What we thought we knew, essentially, it told us what INDOT now knows. To me, it supports the allegation that we’ve got an unsafe road out there and we need to get something done about it,” Thallemer stated.
He said, “I think we’re at a point now where we know what the concerns are, and they’re primarily safety concerns, mobility concerns getting to and from, across and through U.S. 30. And then also utilizing U.S. 30 as a major transportation corridor and how that needs to be improved to meet, to continue our growth and economic development, getting our workforce to and from work and maintaining the advantage that we have with that road to develop and grow our communities.”
Between now and later this fall, the consulting firm working on behalf of the state on the study will come out with a group of alternative fixes for U.S. 30. They will then pare those down to meet the needs they’ve identified. They then will come up with a final recommendation, seek comments in the spring 2024 and have another public meeting.
“After they’ve gone through the analysis of public comments, and narrowed it down, they will spend probably another six months putting the final report together,” Thallemer said, with the PEL study finalized by about fall 2024. “So we’re a little more than a year away from knowing exactly what the ProPEL told INDOT as far as a road. After that, I assume there will be suggestions and alternatives identified for our community and other communities along the corridor. They will then be subject to probably another six to eight months of environmental study at the federal level. ProPEL did a portion of the environmental study, but to get a project a federal designation number, it has to have a full federal environmental study, so that will be the next step after the ProPEL.”
If money is available and those road projects get programmed, he said it will take about another five years for all the engineering, right-of-way and other work before the first shovel of dirt turns.
He estimated it would be another seven years from now before anything starts to take shape. That’s if everything hits perfectly.
“I’m encouraged that we’re making progress. I have let it be known that I don’t think the Purpose and Need is addressing the economic development reality of how the safety issues are really impacting our ability to grow our communities. That, to me, is what we really need to hit home with before the final report is published. That they include the fact that the economic development component of this is a critical part of that,” Thallemer said.
He said INDOT has done a great job with the study and the consultants have been very responsive. Public comments are still encouraged, especially through the end of this month, to finalize the Purpose and Need study. Those comments can be made on the website at propelus30.com.