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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowAbout 150 houses or businesses are slated for demolished under state highway department plans for a new 20-mile stretch of U.S. 31 in northern Indiana.
Plans for the $280 million project rerouting of the highway between South Bend and Plymouth were presented to residents Tuesday night by the Department of Transportation.
The work will turn that section of U.S. 31 into a limited-access highway with four interchanges. It is part of a larger $1.2 billion reconstruction of the highway aimed at improving travel between South Bend and Indianapolis that includes a new bypass around Kokomo and upgrades to it in the northern suburbs of Indianapolis.
Realigning the highway's northern stretch will affect at least part of 470 parcels in the corridor, highway agency spokeswoman Angela Fegaras said.
Some initial construction has already started, and resident Andy Horvath said he was concerned about the building of an embankment for a new bridge near his home and the loss neighbors who have to move.
"You leave three houses—that's not much of a neighborhood," Horvath said. "I'd rather have neighbors than a dirt hill and bridges."
The new Plymouth-South Bend route will take the highway around, rather than through, the towns of Lakeville and LaPaz and is scheduled for completion in 2014.
"I don't like it being next to my new house … but we need it," resident Dave Norman said.
The highway plans, however, still upset Arlene Molar, who lives near the route.
"Would you be happy if you were having all of this done to you?" she said. "They got a lot of money in this thing—and taking all these people's homes."
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