The state plans to construct a new interchange at Interstate 69 and Union Chapel Road in two years, followed by a massive overhaul to the I-69 interchange with Dupont Road in 2013.
The new multimillion-dollar interchange would require displacing about a half-dozen homes in an effort to alleviate traffic congestion in northeast Allen County.
But the project must still pass several procedural approvals before it becomes reality. On Tuesday, the Urban Transportation Advisory Board, a local traffic planning group, approved adding the engineering and right-of-way acquisition to its traffic plan, but not the project’s construction.
Engineering and right-of-way are each estimated to cost $2 million for the Union Chapel interchange, but construction estimates were not provided by the Indiana Department of Transportation. Parkview Health is contributing to the project’s cost, as well as the cost of Union Chapel improvements at Auburn and Diebold roads.
Kimberlee Parker, project manager for the state, said Parkview was generous but declined to say how much the hospital chain contributed.
She said the state will now begin engineering work for the new interchange that will help determine how much construction will cost and how many homes will need to be bought. The proposal called for a thin diamond interchange or multiple roundabouts to minimize the need to acquire property and hurt neighboring Autumn Ridge and its golf course. Public hearings on the project will likely occur early next year, Parker said.
A few residents from the neighborhoods attended Tuesday’s meeting and expressed concerns about the need for an interchange at Union Chapel.
Dupont diamond
The new interchange comes in part to relieve congestion at the Dupont Road ramps for I-69. While the interchange is already failing at times, it is expected to get worse after the expanded Parkview North Hospital campus opens in 2012, which could add as many as 4,000 daily trips to the area.
Dan Avery, director of the Northeast Indiana Regional Coordinating Council, said regardless of anything being done at Union Chapel, improvements will be needed at Dupont, an argument supported by a traffic study released to the board Tuesday.
To reduce congestion, he discussed the possibility of building a diverging diamond interchange at Dupont and I-69. Such an interchange would include two new signals at the north- and southbound ramps and would have drivers on the left side of Dupont for a short time to provide unimpeded left and right turns onto the interstate.
While such a design has been used in other parts of the country, there are no such interchanges in Indiana. Avery said the design provides the best traffic flow for the least money. It is estimated to cost $2.35 million, far less than other alternatives proposed. The proposal would not require the state to buy additional property.
Construction on the Dupont interchange would likely occur in 2013, after Union Chapel is complete. Avery said he also asked the state to keep an I-69 interchange at Hursh Road/Gump Road in the long-term plans, most likely to be done after 2020.
The state already is moving forward with a project to improve the Dupont interchange next year. The project will add a lane from Dupont to southbound I-69, which is the most heavily traveled of the ramps at the interchange.
