While an official with the Indiana Department of Transportation used the words “proposal” and “preliminary” while he talked about the possibility of a roundabout at Indiana 2 and Porter County Road 100 South, that wasn’t enough to appease people who live near the intersection.
About a half dozen people spoke Thursday at Boone Grove High School during a hearing held by the INDOT, and none seemed too thrilled with the idea of a roundabout. County Road 300 West, which also feeds into the intersection, would be reconfigured to connect with Ind. 2 just south of the Porter Township intersection under the proposal.
“No offense, INDOT, but you think roundabouts are the end all and be all, but every time you put one in, I have to find another way. I don’t like them,” said Angela Moench, who’s lived near the intersection for 31 years, and, like the other speakers, generated applause from the more than 70 people who attended the hearing.
Between the 24 accidents reported at the intersection between 2010 and 2012, the year an intersection improvement first popped up on INDOT’s radar, and the sightlines there, officials wanted to consider measures to make the intersection safer. None of the accidents were fatal.
“If you travel through there, the skew of that intersection is squirrelly,” said Rickie Clark, with INDOT’s Office of Public Involvement, noting that Ind. 2 is on a hill. “Even if we don’t necessarily agree with the treatment, there is a challenge at that intersection.”
In addition to the sightlines, Clark said speed on Ind. 2 is a concern as drivers approach the intersection. Other alternatives for the intersection, including signs or a traffic signal instead of the blinker there now, would enhance safety somewhat but wouldn’t address the sightlines.
“We definitely feel the roundabout proposal will reduce the number of vehicular accidents,” he said.
People in the audience questioned the accident statistics, which they pointed out were several years old; whether school buses, farm equipment and semi-trucks would be able to safely and smoothly get through the intersection; and decried why, if the intersection was so dangerous, officials didn’t do something about it sooner.
“”I think there’s a lot of time that’s gone on where you could have helped this intersection,” said Robert Rapley, who lives in the 200 block of County Road 100 South, adding the state could have lowered the speed limit approaching intersection, which is 45 mph on Ind. 2 at the intersection but 55 mph north and south of it.
The number of accidents at the intersection is not that bad, said David Miller, a retired Indiana State Police trooper who’s lived on County Road 300 West for 25 years, and wondered if the improvements weren’t contingent on plans for a nearby 450-home subdivision.
He suggested cutting back the trees at the intersection and shaving down the hill because drivers will approach the intersection too fast since it’s in a rural area.
“It would open up the sight paths that you’re talking about,” he said.
The proposal as it stands would cost $1.5 million, with 80 percent of that in federal funds and 20 percent from the state, in construction costs, and would require INDOT to acquire 4 acres of property for permanent right-of-way, Clark said. One residence at the northwest corner of the intersection may require relocation, he added, and INDOT would need almost another acre for the duration of the construction.
The public can offer comments on the proposal through April 10, Clark said, and INDOT will take those suggests under consideration when deciding on the future of the intersection, which could come later this spring.
Amy Lavalley is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
Your thoughts?
Comments can be submitted by email to Rickie Clark at rclark@indot.in.gov, or mailed to the INDOT Office of Public Involvement, Attention: Rickie Clark, 100 N. Senate Ave., Room N642, Indianapolis, Ind. 46204.
