News From Terre Haute, Indiana

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Info online

• A copy of Tuesday’s hearing from the Indiana Department of Transportation, which includes maps of slated construction and when construction will occur, can be found at www.in.gov/indot  or directly at www.in.gov/indot/3034.htm

Related Photos

  • Tribune-Star/Jim Avelis Interested party: Lowell Eck of Youngstown, looks over the aerial photos of the route the 641 bypass will take where Riley rRad and Indiana 46 meet. Two roundabouts will be a part of the traffic flow helping travelers get where they are going.

    MET022112641 eck.jpg

  • Tribune-Star/Jim Avelis Clearing a path: Excavators move downed trees to a brush pile along the path of the 641 bypass near Riley Road and Indiana 46 Tuesday afternoon.

    MET022112641.jpg

  • Tribune-Star/Jim Avelis Changes in store: Trees have been cleared from along Indiana 46 near Moyer road. Clearing the land is setting the stage for bringing the 641 bypass to completion.

    MET022112641 creek.jpg

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February 22, 2012

INDOT gives 641 update

Bypass slated for 2014 completion date

Howard Greninger The Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE — Two construction phases remain on the 641 bypass that will connect U.S. 41 to Interstate 70 around Terre Haute, with construction work on Phase III slated to start this spring.

INDOT officials held a public informational meeting Tuesday at Terre Haute South Vigo High School to present an update on the bypass project. More than 200 residents attended the hearing, held in the school’s cafeteria.

Carl Rutledge, 58, who lives south of Riley, wanted to see how Indiana 46 would be impacted at I-70  “as that is the route I come into town,” he said. Rutledge moved his fingers over a map, saying the map helped him understand how a connecting road would link to I-70, by going through a section of trees.

“I think it looks good. It’s about 20 years late,” Rutledge said.

Phase III extends from just northeast of Feree Road to east of Riley Road. Walsh Construction Co. of Crown Point, in January was awarded a construction contract for $25,298,936. Work is scheduled to begin this spring and take two years to complete.

Travel lanes from McDaniel Road to Riley Road are slated to be open by the end of 2013.

Work already has begun on the Phase III portion as part of a “clearing contract,” to remove trees and scrubs. That work must be completed prior to April 1, as not to impact the Indiana bat, said Indiana Department of Transportation spokeswoman Debbie Calder.

Phase IV begins east of Riley Road and extends to the I-70 interchange. INDOT will let construction bids for Phase IV in October. Roadway construction is then expected to start before the end of this year and continue until the fall of 2014.

Chris Reynolds, who lives in North Willowbrook subdivision, said he wanted to look over the project “to see how our access to Walmart and getting into town and getting onto I-70 would be affected. I have followed this project since I bought” a home in the subdivision in 1998, he said.

“I just wanted to make sure that once it came to fruition, it is what it is supposed to be and it seems to be, so I am not really concerned,” Reynolds said. “I just wanted to make sure there were no surprises at the end and not have any adverse effect on our property.”

Lowell Eck, a resident of Youngstown Meadows subdivision, said he came to the hearing “just to see where the project is going. I think it is about 10 years too late,” Eck said. “It should have been done a long time ago because of the traffic. I do think the planning for it was wrong to begin with. I think it should have gone west and brought [Indiana] 63 down and tied in. That would have made a whole lot more sense,” Eck said.

INDOT officials said access to businesses and residences will be maintained during the construction project.

Two lanes of traffic in each direction will be maintained at all times on I-70 and interchange ramps will remain open to traffic. Work at I-70, slated for 2013 and 2014, will require temporary crossovers, with two lanes of traffic in each direction to be maintained during construction.

Access to property between Moyer Road and I-70 will vary during construction. Access to Moyer Road at Indiana 46 will be maintained during construction until a new service road, called Tucker Street, is built. Once this service road is built, access will be from a new Riley Road interchange at Indiana 46, with alternative routes from the new Riley Road and/or the new Tucker Street.

Addresses changes will be made with this construction. Properties addresses fronting the existing Indiana 46 between Moyer Road and I-70 are expected to change to Tucker Street. Riley Road addresses between the Little Honey Creek bridge and Tucker Street will change from Riley Road to Riley Court, INDOT officials said.

Les C. Berlin, who lives north of Moyer Road along Indiana 46, said he wanted to check how access to his home would be impacted during construction. “At this stage of the game, that is all that is left,” he said. “You can’t stop progress. The road is going to go through, whatever noise that is going to come along will come along, whatever pollution that is going to come along is going to come along. The powers that be decided it was going to go, so we are just going to live with whatever,” Berlin said.

Jim Booe, a 14-year resident of Willowbrook South subdivision, said he wanted to “see how I will have to navigate back north. I was at the meeting when they were going to come right through part of the subdivision and that concerned me a lot then.

“Then the last time when I saw the current interchange drawn up, now that makes sense,” Booe said. “That is beautiful. It really makes sense. Nothing is wasted. It has a roundabout and we need more of those,” Booe said.

Booe said once built, the new Tucker Street will allow him to get to his home while a bridge over Moyer Road is built as part of the bypass project.

Ray Rickert tried to look at a large map on the wall, standing behind about eight people. Rickert said the bypass directly impacts him.

“It cuts through 3.2 acres of my property,” Rickert said, who lives along Indiana 46 north of Moyer Road. Rickert said the project will mean driving differently to his home, “but we will get used to it.”

The bypass project is slated to be completed by the end of the construction season in 2014.



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

tribstar.com.

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