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Terre Haute Northeast Bypass

Started by US 231, July 18, 2012, 07:46:56 AM

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US 231

I read an executive summary for the Terre Haute area and there is a plan to extend SR 46 northwest to US 41 then west to US 150. It would be a 2-lane limited access highway with 4-lane ROW. According to the ISU Master Plan 2 roundabouts will be put into place on 3rd Street after US 41 and US 150 is routed onto the bypass. There are plans to put frontage roads on SR 46 from Wabash Ave. / US 40 to Interstate 70. The plan is still an illusrative project an if construction ever occurs it wouldn't occur until the 2021 - 2030 time frame. The city of TH is also in favor of a US 41 / 3rd street eastern bypass, but wants it multilaned.

* If this ever happens SR 641 will likely be decommissioned and just called US 41 and US 150.
* Also it will probably never be called SR 46.


adt1982


sd72667

Quote from: US 231 on July 18, 2012, 07:46:56 AM
I read an executive summary for the Terre Haute area and there is a plan to extend SR 46 northwest to US 41 then west to US 150. It would be a 2-lane limited access highway with 4-lane ROW. According to the ISU Master Plan 2 roundabouts will be put into place on 3rd Street after US 41 and US 150 is routed onto the bypass. There are plans to put frontage roads on SR 46 from Wabash Ave. / US 40 to Interstate 70. The plan is still an illusrative project an if construction ever occurs it wouldn't occur until the 2021 - 2030 time frame. The city of TH is also in favor of a US 41 / 3rd street eastern bypass, but wants it multilaned.

* If this ever happens SR 641 will likely be decommissioned and just called US 41 and US 150.
* Also it will probably never be called SR 46.
As slow as it is taking to finish SR 641, this will be completed in 25 years or longer. Once I-69 is finished, there will be less traffic using roads around Terre Haute. These improvements should have been made 30-40 yrs ago.

mukade

I agree it is many years overdue. Because it is clearly needed and because the INDOT commissioner is from Terre Haute, it might actually happen sooner than you think.

tdindy88

One thing about I-69 and Terre Haute involving traffic, while a good deal and perhaps even the majority of traffic that runs along US 41 around Terre Haute might be Indy to Evansville based (hence the SR 641 bypass,) there is still a good deal of traffic that runs through Terre Haute along the US 41/SR 63 highway complex that goes from Northwest Indiana south across Western Indiana through Terre Haute and on to Evansville, and I-69 won't do much for that group. This bypass seems to be addressing this group more. This bypass would be a good idea given that US 41 bypasses most of the other communities along its routing in Indiana (Northwest Indiana suburbs and Evansville, which has I-164 nearby, excepting.) In any case, as long as the new bypass isn't allowed to develop like US 31 around Kokomo or US 41 as it is south of Terre Haute, then it will be worth it. A couple of questions I would like to pose however:

-Isn't Rose-Hulman in the way of the new path. IIRC the SR 46/US 40 junction is just south of the university campus, would the new bypass have to find a way to avoid this?
-If the highway is built to go all the way to US 150 northwest of Terre Haute, will SR 63 be truncated to the new (at that point) US 150 bypass. I'm assuming the answer to that is yes.

mukade

Quote from: tdindy88 on July 18, 2012, 08:30:48 PM
-Isn't Rose-Hulman in the way of the new path. IIRC the SR 46/US 40 junction is just south of the university campus, would the new bypass have to find a way to avoid this?

I think Rose Hulman is just to the east of current SR 46/US 40. That part is probably easier than where it will likely have to go through a built-up area up north.

Quote from: tdindy88 on July 18, 2012, 08:30:48 PM
-If the highway is built to go all the way to US 150 northwest of Terre Haute, will SR 63 be truncated to the new (at that point) US 150 bypass. I'm assuming the answer to that is yes.

SR 63 might also be extended to I-70 if the current US 41 through Terre Haute stays a state road. If they build this road, wouldn't it be a great chance to swap US 41 and SR 63 north of Terre Haute?

US 231

#6
The website that shows the route of the TH NE Bypass is right below. (The NE bypass is shown on Page 9 of this website.)

www.westcentralin.com/resources/ExecutiveSummary.pdf

A Western bypass was originally considered, but it was going to cost 550 million dollars since it would mostly run through Wabash River swamp land. A NE bypass would only cost 85 million dollars.

The website for the ISU Master Plan that shows roundabouts on 3rd Street is below. The plan also mentions that TH wants a Eastern Bypass for US 41 so it will relieve traffic congestion on 3rd Street and that once realized roundabouts will be able to be put into place on 3rd Street.

irt2.indstate.edu/ir/assets/splan/Campus_Master_Plan.pdf.

Lyon Wonder

Quote from: tdindy88 on July 18, 2012, 08:30:48 PM
In any case, as long as the new bypass isn't allowed to develop like US 31 around Kokomo or US 41 as it is south of Terre Haute, then it will be worth it.


Which IMO is why it should be built with limited access and grade separation as much as possible.

mukade

Quote from: Lyon Wonder on July 21, 2012, 05:37:29 PM
Quote from: tdindy88 on July 18, 2012, 08:30:48 PM
In any case, as long as the new bypass isn't allowed to develop like US 31 around Kokomo or US 41 as it is south of Terre Haute, then it will be worth it.

Which IMO is why it should be built with limited access and grade separation as much as possible.

Yes, but "as much as possible" probably does not mean freeway for more than one reason. Number 1 is always cost. Making that road a full freeway would be very expensive, and Indiana already has two big freeway projects (I-69 extension and US 31 upgrade). Also, it would be behind another similar project in Jasper. Planning for that bypass has been going on for a long time, and I think they plan on starting that in 2015.

Secondly, I doubt that traffic volumes support it. With the Kokomo US 31 freeway bypass, INDOT studies showed only 13% of the traffic was inter-city (e.g. South Bend to Indy). US 31 is a busier road than SR 63 and US 41 north of Terre Haute. There are no major cities north of Terre Haute until you hit Northwest Indiana, and western Indiana is pretty desolate.

Finally, even though SR 641 from US 41 north to I-70 will be a freeway, current SR 46/US 40 will not be, and unfortunately, it is fairly built up in areas. If the entire section from US 41 south of Terre Haute up to US 40 by Rose Hulman were freeway or expressway, it might be easier to make a case.

I think an expressway like SR 25/Hoosier Heartland or SR 49 in Porter County (or Illinois 336) would be more than sufficient for now.

silverback1065

State road 63 was decommissioned years ago in terre haute it now ends at the interchange just north of the city

mukade

Quote from: silverback1065 on August 03, 2012, 02:14:16 PM
State road 63 was decommissioned years ago in terre haute it now ends at the interchange just north of the city

Sorta kinda. It was split, and it ends at US 41 as you said, but there is also a southern section that goes from SR 54 to SR 246. The last I knew, it actually still continued north from SR 246 to the Terre Haute city limits, but that section was not marked as SR 63. So it essentially is non-exisent in the city limits, but unless Vigo County finally accepted the road back from INDOT, it still exists in the county.

silverback1065

any links with a better map of the proposed final bypass?



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