The latest draft of a study on improvements along U.S. 30 between Ind. 49 and U.S. 31 is up for public review.
Public comments are being sought during a session from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. May 20 at the Valparaiso Fire Training Center, 355 W. Evans Ave.
Scott Sandstrom of CDM Smith, a consultant working on the report for the Indiana Department of Transportation, said the study looks at alternatives for segments along the highway for projects decades into the future.
“We’re hoping to finish the study here soon,” he said.
Goals of the study include supporting economic development, providing equitable access for underserved communities, accommodating multimodal access and connections, improving local access, preserving the character of local communities and supporting emerging technologies, including alternative fuel and autonomous or connected vehicles.
The 180-mile project includes the 4.9-mile Valparaiso segment stretching from Ind. 49 east to the LaPorte County line. The six original alternatives have been narrowed to three so far.
The draft of the study said there are five primary intersections and four secondary intersections.
The first of the alternatives under consideration, improvement package 3 in the draft, “includes relative mid-level costs and high-impact solutions,” the study says. It includes extending the acceleration lane from Ind. 49 to U.S. 30, closing the crossing at Comeford Road and building overpasses at County Road 450 E and County Line Road.
Package 5 would add overpasses at County Roads 400 E and 450 E and redo the intersection at County Line Road. Instead of directly crossing all lanes on U.S. 30 or immediately turning left onto U.S. 30, drivers would turn right until they could use a left turn lane to do a U-turn. All driveway access would be removed.
The report says this alternative “involves relatively high-level costs and mid- to high-level impact solutions.”
Package 6 would close the Comeford Road, Industrial Drive, Pilot Travel Center, 450 E and 575 E intersections, putting a new interchange at 400 E and overpasses at 325 E and County Line Road. This alternative “involves implementing relatively high-cost and high-impact solutions.”
Like package 5, package 3 would prevent 67 or more crossing crashes, the study estimates. Package 6 is the least cost-efficient at preventing crossing crashes, the draft says. Package 6 also would result in marginal benefits to safety and mobility, the draft said, but it was included in the next round of consideration because of U.S. 30’s role in the regional and statewide transportation network, the draft says.
Just east of the Valparaiso segment is the 5-mile Wanatah segment, from County Line Road to LaPorte County Road 700 W. That short stretch of road drew more than half of the public comments of the entire project so far, Sandstrom said.
Package 1 includes a roundabout at U.S. 421 to reduce speed – a common concern by those who commented so far – and reduce the likelihood of severe right-angle, left turn and head-on collisions. It also would reconfigure nine of the 11 intersections to improve safety.
Package 4 would force right turns at nine intersections to improve safety. The intersection at U.S. 421 would be turned into an interchange, with ramps.
Package 6 would create a bypass around Wanatah with no intersections except a new interchange at U.S. 421. No changes would be made along the existing alignment of U.S. 30.
After the current round of public input on the draft, the next step is to draft the final report to guide INDOT as it plans projects well into the future.
“The packages that we show could be mixed and matched in the future,” Sandstrom said.
“This is a planning document. It’s not the plan,” said Porter County Surveyor Kevin Breitzke, who heads the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission’s Transportation Committee.
Ensuring access for emergency vehicles along the route is among the concerns, he noted.
“I keep encouraging them to do the same study but go from Valparaiso west to the state line because that’s a more troubled area, in my mind, but one thing at a time,” Breitzke said.
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
