Counties wanting to speed traffic among suburbs are building highways to avoid having to travel into Indianapolis. The result,
a 100-mile outer loop beyond Interstate 465, won’t be completed for years, and it won’t be built to consistent standards,
but it might help ease congestion.
The Indiana Department of Transportation is trying to get a better handle on exactly how many billboards sit along the state’s
highways after a federal agency found problems in Indiana and threatened to withhold $90 million.
Federal stimulus money for Indiana highway projects so far has put to work 1,222 people with a payroll of $1.27 million,
according to state records of 42 projects under way in which contractors have reported job data. The work, ranging
from paving to replacing bridge decks, had a total contract value of $39.2 million.
Lauth Properties alleges in a lawsuit that the state’s plan to rebuild 13 miles of U.S. 31 in Hamilton County to freeway standards
will cut off access to a property it owns in Westfield, killing plans for a Wal-Mart there.
After a surprisingly slow month of January, the pace of legislative action picked up considerably during the first two weeks
of February.
Recently elected as a Hendricks County commissioner, Eric Wathen says his top priority is to complete the long-promised Ronald
Reagan Parkway, which would open a congestion-free path through the suburbs of Brownsburg, Avon and Plainfield.
Business owners along the fabled Gasoline Alley north of Rockville Road think a proposal to close a north-south road linking
them to the front door of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway will have devastating effects.
State and federal highway agencies have approved the final environmental impact statement for the 13-mile rebuilding of U.S.
31 from Interstate 465 to 216th Street.
The corridors leading into downtown Lebanon are a step closer to becoming more attractive.
Work is to begin this month on a 1.2-mile segment of the Pennsy Trail between Arlington Avenue and Shortridge Road.
Cities and counties are looking for alternatives to asphalt as the price soars for the oil-based material and threatens
to bring paving projects and contractors skidding to a halt. The city of Indianapolis may have just found
one viable alternative that goes down like asphalt: roller-compacted concrete, or "rollcrete."
Several landmark commercial properties fronting Interstate 465 on the northeast side could be in the path of bulldozers
when the state begins adding lanes as early as 2012. Memos prepared by a consulting firm to the Indiana
Department of Transportation go as far as estimating acquisition prices for buildings, including that of
country station WFMS-FM 95.5 and other Cumulus Media stations at 6810 N. Shadeland Ave.
Whether it’s southbound I-69 traffic backed up almost to Noblesville, or northbound I-465 traffic a parking lot all the way
to 56th Street, the northeast highway system is grossly inadequate at peak hours. But a report issued last month by an INDOT
consultant shows a radical, $600 million reconfiguration is in the works.
The rebuilding of Interstate 70 between downtown and Interstate 465 six miles to the east, starting in February, threatens to devastate a part of town already struggling economically, businesses and community groups warn.
