INDOT: No funds available to change deadly Indiana 63 curve

By Howard Greninger

TERRE HAUTE — Any major repairs to a treacherous section of Indiana 63 near Harlan Road could not be made until at least 2016, an Indiana Department of Transportation official said Tuesday.

Meredith Beery, 65, of Oaktown, the mother of 2004 Olympic men’s rowing gold medalist Dan Beery, died Sunday in a two-vehicle accident at the curved site on Indiana 63. Police report that Beery’s northbound pickup truck went sideways into the southbound lane, hitting another pickup truck.

INDOT previously conducted an investigation of that section along Indiana 63 and determined it should be included in state safety improvement construction plans, said Mark Albers, planning and program director for INDOT’s Crawfordsville District.

State funding in early 2008 put the project on a timetable for 2012 or 2013, “but as state revenue projections keep going down, we had to reprioritize our projects and that pushed it out of 2015, out of the current TIP (transportation improvement plan)” for the state, Albers said Tuesday, during a meeting of West Central Indiana Economic Development District’s Metropolitan Planning Organization.

The state then focused on safety projects for roads in the highest 5 percent of state crash locations, Albers said.

“We had another [Indiana] 63 project that was also moved out [of scheduled planning] because of funding. We haven’t lost site of this and it is something we are strongly looking at. As of now, it would be at least 2016,” before any major road construction could be done, he said.

However, INDOT already has taken steps to improve the area, installing rubber stripes on the road and new signage warning drivers of a curve.

Judith Anderson, president of the Vigo County Board of Commissioners, said the county would be willing to help if funding were available, “but money right now, there just isn’t any,” she said.

Albers said INDOT is studying whether pavement treatment would be effective as a short-term solution, a measure that would allow for the application of a thin layer of material to provide better tire traction.

Karen Farmer, who lives near the curve on Indiana 63, said vehicles routinely run off the road three to four times daily a few feet into her front yard area. Farmer said she would be willing to contact the Vigo County Sheriff’s department each time that happens, to help provide INDOT with greater statistics on the problem.

“I don’t see a quick fix. Speed is a problem and there are more semi-trucks, which have really increased in the past 10 to 15 years,” said Farmer, who has lived along the state highway for 28 years.

Anderson, after the meeting, said she will ask the Vigo County Sheriff’s Department to put up its electronic speed indicator sign at the intersection “to help slow down traffic and make people realize they are coming up fast on a curve, even though there is a curve sign there.”

The indicator sign has been used in the past as has the stationing of a county deputy sheriff for a limited time. In addition, a school bus route was changed with regard to how students are dropped off of buses along the route.



Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com

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