GOSHEN -- With a drop in gas-tax revenue, the state has to stretch transportation funding dollars, and a draft of the 2010 long-range transportation plan will show delays to a few area projects.
Upgrades to U.S. 33 from downtown to the southeast will see a three-year delay to the project's start, and plans to upgrade S.R. 13 in Middlebury and S.R. 5 in Shipshewana have been put off indefinitely.
The draft of the plan will be released today on the Indiana Department of Transportation Web site, www.in.gov/indot or indot.IN.gov.
U.S. 33 DELAY
The U.S. 33 project is still in its design phase, according to Toni Mayo, INDOT spokeswoman in the Fort Wayne office.
At a public hearing on the project earlier this year, INDOT personnel said the project would be broken into three phases, with construction on the first starting in 2012, the second in 2013 and the final phase starting in 2014.
The change in plans, though, means that construction will start in 2015 and be complete the following year, Mayo said Friday in an e-mail message to The Truth. It may no longer be in three phases, depending on the final route choice, Mayo said.
The preferred route hasn't yet been chosen. The state narrowed it down to three options, all three of which involve widening Lincolnway East from the high school on southeast.
From the high school to Main Street the project will either: Widen the existing roadway along Madison Street, build a new roadway more or less along the railroad tracks through various intersections, or build a roadway along the railroad tracks with a large flyover type of bridge that would cross the Ninth Street tracks and S.R. 4.
The downtown alternative will impact how far the project extends. The budget is $35 million, and if most of that is spent downtown, the road upgrades probably won't reach C.R. 40, the maximum length planned for the project.
Once INDOT planners have a preferred route alternative, they'll have another public meeting to discuss that choice. That probably won't happen in early 2010 as had been suggested in May, according to Mayo.
MIDDLEBURY AND SHIPSHEWANA
People in Middlebury who aren't happy about the state's plans to widen S.R. 13 to four lanes between U.S. 20 and the state line have a reprieve.
"The original completion date was scheduled for 2015; however, due to declining revenue, which includes gas taxes, and other economic factors, it will be moved to a date yet to be determined," Mayo said in her e-mail.
"INDOT is being responsible and planning for projects that are consistent with its revenue. If in the future, the economic situation improves, and we are optimistic that it will, the construction schedule will be adjusted," Mayo said.
Those same factors also affected plans to widen S.R. 5 to four lanes through Shipshewana, between S.R. 120 and U.S. 20, Mayo said.