Update on I-69 Extension in Indiana

Started by mukade, June 25, 2011, 08:55:31 AM

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Alps

Fictional Highways idea: Develop a route to link the Indiana ICC to the Maryland one. It must stay below I-70 at all times :D


rte66man

Quote from: truejd on April 08, 2013, 11:05:32 PM
I drove from Indy to Evansville via 37, 45, and I 69 over Easter weekend. There are "TO 69" signs from the 37/45 interchange along every turn until you reach i69 in Crane

Like this?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rte66man/8638283737/in/set-72157633213641901/

rte66man
When you come to a fork in the road... TAKE IT.

                                                               -Yogi Berra

Captain Jack

Quote from: rte66man on April 10, 2013, 10:09:44 PM
Quote from: truejd on April 08, 2013, 11:05:32 PM
I drove from Indy to Evansville via 37, 45, and I 69 over Easter weekend. There are "TO 69" signs from the 37/45 interchange along every turn until you reach i69 in Crane

Like this?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rte66man/8638283737/in/set-72157633213641901/

rte66man

Good to see I-69 signs in Bloomington!

thefro

#928
The Bloomington Herald Times has a story today (behind a paywall) about how the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce took MPO members up in a helicopter to tour I-69 construction ahead of the big meeting on Friday.  I'll just quote the part about the Bloomington mayor, since his opinion is representative of a few of the people on the board they quote.

http://www.heraldtimesonline.com/stories/2013/04/11/news.birds-eye-view-of-i-69-offered-to-local-officials.sto

QuoteBloomington's mayor hadn't seen the Section 4 construction from the air before Wednesday.

"The perspective I take away from it is, the damage is done,"  Kruzan said. "Now it's a matter of Bloomington and Monroe County not stopping a highway that's already here but leveraging all we can from the state in terms of funding and aesthetics."

He wasn't ready to predict Friday's vote, however. What committee members want from the state department of transportation will play a big part, he predicted.

"It comes down to a commitment from INDOT about whether commitments will be coming or whether it's a commitment itself,"  he said.

Essentially, there's a block on the MPO board who want assurances from INDOT that they will pay for part of the local road upgrades in Bloomington that are needed to accommodate I-69.  17th street (between Crsecent Road and Monroe Street and Sample Road (between Old 37 and Bottom Road) are both mentioned, as well as a new road between Whitetail Crossing and Industrial drive.

If the no votes win, then INDOT can't use federal money to upgrade SR 37 to I-69 through Bloomington

mukade

Quote from: thefro on April 11, 2013, 06:56:50 AM
Essentially, there's a block on the MPO board who want assurances from INDOT that they will pay for part of the local road upgrades in Bloomington that are needed to accommodate I-69.  17th street (between Crsecent Road and Monroe Street and Sample Road (between Old 37 and Bottom Road) are both mentioned, as well as a new road between Whitetail Crossing and Industrial drive.

If the no votes win, then INDOT can't use federal money to upgrade SR 37 to I-69 through Bloomington

And hopefully the MPO won't go down the path where INDOT will have to threaten to pull all federal funds again. I can't think of many cases where the local roads have not been improved by INDOT near interchanges so i guess it is a question of whether what is proposed will be enough. If you look at the US 31 projects (Hamilton County, Kokomo, and South Bend) and I-465 west leg as current project examples which go through cities, I think INDOT will be willing to offer a reasonable package for local road improvements near I-69 in Bloomington. The MPO may not agree, of course.

codyg1985

Quote from: rte66man on April 10, 2013, 10:09:44 PM
Quote from: truejd on April 08, 2013, 11:05:32 PM
I drove from Indy to Evansville via 37, 45, and I 69 over Easter weekend. There are "TO 69" signs from the 37/45 interchange along every turn until you reach i69 in Crane

Like this?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rte66man/8638283737/in/set-72157633213641901/

rte66man

Nice pictures! Nice to see rapid progress along I-69 in Indiana and construction of I-269 around Memphis.
Cody Goodman
Huntsville, AL, United States

truejd


silverback1065

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rte66man/8639381882/in/set-72157633213641901/
That's an interesting sign, I've never seen one that posts the direction change in that way.

vtk

Quote"It comes down to a commitment from INDOT about whether commitments will be coming or whether it's a commitment itself,"  he said.

What?
Wait, it's all Ohio? Always has been.

Alps

Quote from: vtk on April 11, 2013, 12:37:45 PM
Quote"It comes down to a commitment from INDOT about whether commitments will be coming or whether it's a commitment itself,"  he said.

What?
Politics.

thefro

https://twitter.com/govtracker/status/322810647622586369

Per a Bloomington Herald Times reporter on twitter, the Bloomington/Monroe County MPO approved section 5 of I-69 on an 8-4 vote.  Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan voted yes, so that's one of the flips from the 2012 vote on section 4.

thefro

#936
It appears that the last Section 4 segment that was recently let is now scheduled to open in 2015 to save money:

http://tristatehomepage.com/fulltext-news?nxd_id=605292

QuoteWork is now underway on the final stretch of new construction for the southern extension of Interstate 69 in Indiana.
The Indiana Department of Transportation awarded construction contracts to a St. Louis firm to build the remaining section of new highway from Crane to Bloomington.
$109.6 million will be spent on design and construction of the new stretch of highway. The proposal will save $45 million in the construction of a challenging three-mile section in southeastern Greene County by having it open to traffic in 2015. The construction contract offers incentives of $30,000 for each day that contractors open the interstate earlier than anticipated.

https://bloomington.in.gov/media/media/application/pdf/14311.pdf

Some interesting notes from the MPO Meeting agenda from yesterday:
On the cost of upgrading SR 37 to I-69 through Bloomington:
QuoteThe project consists of an upgrade of existing State Route 37 to a fully access-controlled interstate highway.
The portion of Section 5 that is within the MPA has a total project cost of $77,700,000 spanning fiscal years
2013 through 2015. INDOT estimates that an additional $82,900,000 will be needed in later fiscal years to
finish construction on this portion of Section 5. The entirety of Section 5 from State Route 39 near Martinsville
to Victor Pike is estimated to cost a total of $394,100,000.

- The preliminary 2014-2017 TIP has $20 million dollars budgeted in both 2016 & 2017 on I-69 work in Bloomington.

- INDOT is targeting June of this year for completition of the FEIS & Record of Decision on Section 5

So the next thing to watch for would be the completition of the Indiana state budget coming up, which should happen in the next couple weeks.  It's interesting that the INDOT estimate provided in March to the MPO is about $90 million higher than what the Indiana State Senate had in its presentation for the cost of completing Section 5.

The MPO's boundary ends at Kinser Pike, so we don't know at this time if INDOT has any additional Section 5 construction past that area that they plan to start on in the next few years.  Obviously a lot of that is going to depend on what the state transportation budget is.

mukade

The full INDOT press release is here.

This press release includes some additional information on the project. As section 4 completion is now 2015, perhaps that will coincide with the completion of the southern part of section 5 through Bloomington.

thefro

Hopefully they'll have the most critical upgrades done by the time section 4 opens, but even with unlimited money they're not going to be able to get everything completed by that time because of the way construction has to be sequenced. 

It's an existing, busy stretch of road and traffic would be too disrupted in Bloomington if they did everything at once.

ShawnP

Disrupt the traffic all you want in Bloomington. Tom Crean will raise a banner celebrating Bloomington for having the worst traffic in America.

mukade

Quote from: thefro on April 13, 2013, 01:14:18 PM
Hopefully they'll have the most critical upgrades done by the time section 4 opens, but even with unlimited money they're not going to be able to get everything completed by that time because of the way construction has to be sequenced. 

It's an existing, busy stretch of road and traffic would be too disrupted in Bloomington if they did everything at once.

Just like any other project, access needs to be maintained, but the "Vernal Pike Overpass" (17th St.), "Fullerton Pike Interchange", and "Rockport Road Overpass(es)" are the key parts to get the stoplights out of there. They could add a temporary stoplight at That Road, if necessary, before it gets closed like was done at US 31 at 169th Street. The existing interchange upgrades (including Tapp Rd. construction) can happen anytime afterward as far as I am concerned. I think the first traffic light would then be at Burton Lane in Martinsville.

hbelkins

Quote from: ShawnP on April 13, 2013, 01:20:51 PM
Disrupt the traffic all you want in Bloomington. Tom Crean will raise a banner celebrating Bloomington for having the worst traffic in America.

:-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D


Government would be tolerable if not for politicians and bureaucrats.

Revive 755

Quote from: mukade on April 13, 2013, 02:30:21 PM
They could add a temporary stoplight at That Road, if necessary, before it gets closed like was done at US 31 at 169th Street.

There's a road that needs to be renamed or a given a route number.  I can see it now:

Passenger:  Turn right on That Road.

(Driver turns right at first cross road)

Passenger:  You made a wrong turn.  You were supposed to turn on That Road, not this road.

Driver:  I did turn on that road.
. . .

silverback1065

Quote from: Revive 755 on April 13, 2013, 10:50:28 PM
Quote from: mukade on April 13, 2013, 02:30:21 PM
They could add a temporary stoplight at That Road, if necessary, before it gets closed like was done at US 31 at 169th Street.

There's a road that needs to be renamed or a given a route number.  I can see it now:

Passenger:  Turn right on That Road.

(Driver turns right at first cross road)

Passenger:  You made a wrong turn.  You were supposed to turn on That Road, not this road.

Driver:  I did turn on that road.
. . .
:-D :-D :-D :-D

Alps

Quote from: Revive 755 on April 13, 2013, 10:50:28 PM
Quote from: mukade on April 13, 2013, 02:30:21 PM
They could add a temporary stoplight at That Road, if necessary, before it gets closed like was done at US 31 at 169th Street.

There's a road that needs to be renamed or a given a route number.  I can see it now:

Passenger:  Turn right on That Road.

(Driver turns right at first cross road)

Passenger:  You made a wrong turn.  You were supposed to turn on That Road, not this road.

Driver:  I did turn on that road.
. . .
I was 50/50 on whether "That Road" was a euphemism for some notorious road whose name I'm supposed to inherently know without being from the area, or an actual road name. I'm 50/50 on whether I'm happier knowing I wasn't missing anything, or sadder knowing that That (that that that that that?) is the real name.

vtk

Perhaps "That Road" is the official name, but maybe it's a shorter version of the old name: "That Road Which Shall Not Be Named Memorial Parkway".  The shortening was both to save money on road signs, and so people would stop asking about a chapter in the town's history they'd rather forget.
Wait, it's all Ohio? Always has been.

thefro

Quote from: mukade on April 13, 2013, 02:30:21 PM
Quote from: thefro on April 13, 2013, 01:14:18 PM
Hopefully they'll have the most critical upgrades done by the time section 4 opens, but even with unlimited money they're not going to be able to get everything completed by that time because of the way construction has to be sequenced. 

It's an existing, busy stretch of road and traffic would be too disrupted in Bloomington if they did everything at once.

Just like any other project, access needs to be maintained, but the "Vernal Pike Overpass" (17th St.), "Fullerton Pike Interchange", and "Rockport Road Overpass(es)" are the key parts to get the stoplights out of there. They could add a temporary stoplight at That Road, if necessary, before it gets closed like was done at US 31 at 169th Street. The existing interchange upgrades (including Tapp Rd. construction) can happen anytime afterward as far as I am concerned. I think the first traffic light would then be at Burton Lane in Martinsville.

Tapp Road also has a stoplight, so that SR 45 (2nd Street)/Tapp Road split diamond has to be completed to make the whole road to Martinsville stoplight free.  The construction sequencing says that project "cannot" be done at the same time as the Fullerton segment (as opposed to "should not" for some of the other sequencing).

The individual segments also have their own sequencing in some cases... for instance the Fullerton segment says that interchange should be completed, and then they can redo the Fullerton/Rockport interchange, build the Rockport overpass, and close off That Road.

tdindy88

#947
At least That Road isn't like Tapp Road, which becomes Country Club Road, Winslow Road AND Rogers Road along the same stretch of road in the span of about three miles. Stay on the road and turn 90 degrees toward the north and it becomes Smith Road. Five names without turning off the same road all while in Bloomington.

mukade

Quote from: thefro on April 14, 2013, 11:18:54 AM
Quote from: mukade on April 13, 2013, 02:30:21 PM
The existing interchange upgrades (including Tapp Rd. construction) can happen anytime afterward as far as I am concerned.

The construction sequencing says that project "cannot" be done at the same time as the Fullerton segment (as opposed to "should not" for some of the other sequencing).

I think that was the point. The order can be changed (look at the INDOT lettings and see how fluid they are), and as noted, the Tapp Road interchange project is the SR 45 interchange project. Whenever the Tapp Road overpass is built, the stoplight will be removed.

The other thing is that document was published when the target completion date for section 4 was 2014. Now it is officially 2015 so they might be able to remove all stoplights in Monroe County when section 4 opens. It all depends on whether or not they kick off section 5 work next spring.

silverback1065

Quote from: tdindy88 on April 14, 2013, 12:29:47 PM
At least That Road isn't like Tapp Road, which becomes Country Club Road and Winslow Road along the same stretch of road in the span of about three miles. Stay on the road and turn 90 degrees toward the north and it becomes Smith Road. Four names without turning off the same road all while in Bloomington.

Another road that does that in Bloomington is SR 48, I still can't figure out what the official name of the road is, obviously it's SR 48, but the local road is signed with 2 names Whitehall Pike and 3rd street.  Can you even do that?  It must be confusing to people around there. Look at the intersection of Curry Pike and SR 48 on street view to see what I mean.



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