With a few spades of dirt thrown, the clock began ticking toward the end of the “highway of death.”
Gov. Mitch Daniels and representatives from the Indiana Department of Transportation and General Assembly broke ground Wednesday on the first Indiana section of the new U.S. 24. The officials praised the project as a way to spur economic development for the area, as well as promote safety.
Trucks account for about half the traffic on the two-lane road, which has seen a high number of accidents and fatal crashes. A tractor-trailer rig overturned this week on U.S. 24, just east of Interstate 469. No one was injured.
Rep. Randy Borror, R-Fort Wayne, thanked Daniels for his pledge to finance the much-needed improvement.
“You will save lives on what has been known as the highway of death,” Borror said.
The groundbreaking ends a decades-long discussion of improving U.S. 24. Daniels said northeast Indiana drivers would still be waiting for the project if it hadn’t been for the Major Moves legislation, which leased the Indiana Toll Road.
In fact, much of the event Wednesday centered on the legislation and how it has benefited the state.
Many of the politicos there thanked the governor for taking the politically risky move of leasing the Toll Road. Daniels is running for re-election this year, although he faces no opponent in the Republican primary.
The $170 million Fort to Port project will eventually link Fort Wayne to the Port of Toledo with an interstate-like highway. Indiana’s portion of the project is an 11-mile stretch from I-469 in New Haven to the Ohio line.
The first segment of the Indiana project, which is called Phase IV, stretches from just west of Indiana 101 to the state line.
Primco, of Fort Wayne, won the contract for nearly $11 million, to be completed by Thanksgiving if weather cooperates. The work must be done by fall 2009.
Ohio’s portion of the project began construction last year, and the states hope to link the highway at the state line in 2009. Indiana will then complete the rest of the expansion west to New Haven.
Indiana last year added $40 million to the project to include interstate-like interchanges at Webster Road and at Indiana 101.
The planned regular intersection with Bruick and Ryan roads – which is the same road on opposite sides of U.S. 24 – will still be built without interchanges, but an overpass will be built to help horse-drawn buggies traverse the four-lane highway.
The next phase of the project is the interchange construction, which is scheduled to be awarded to a contractor this fall, and some preliminary work could begin this year.
The first phase of construction is not expected to disrupt most existing traffic patterns, although there likely will be some closures on State Line Road.
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