Daniels launches local highway project

Gov. Mitch Daniels’ Major Moves program got its Monroe County start Wednesday, on the blade of a golden-plated shovel.

Daniels and other local officials ceremoniously broke ground on the construction of Ind. 48 near its intersection with Daniels Way, which leads to Ivy Tech Community College.

The project, which will widen Ind. 48 to five lanes from Curry Pike to Oard Road, is expected to take about two years to complete, at an estimated cost of $12.5 million.

That tab will be picked up by Daniels’ Major Moves program. As part of Major Moves, Daniels pushed through a multibillion-dollar deal to lease the Indiana Toll Road to a private company.

Daniels defended the plan and touted the progress during his stop.

“All results are met with enthusiasm,” he said, “and that’s what you’re hearing today.”

He said the plan will not solve all of Indiana’s infrastructure problems, but noted that many communities have already seen much-needed improvements in only a year.

Monroe County has five projects on the Major Moves agenda. The Ind. 48 project is the first to get under way.

That was welcome news to many community leaders.

“Hopefully this new highway will help with congestion,” Ivy Tech-Bloomington Chancellor John Whikehart said. “This improvement is a safety issue for all of us.”

With his campus’ student population expected to hit the 5,000 mark in the fall, and the presence of businesses such as Cook and Baxter in the immediate area, Whikehart said the widening of Ind. 48 should help commuters in every direction.

“People will have to leave a little bit earlier to get to work or school,” he said of the two-year construction, “but they understand and will adjust. With this kind of progress there comes a significant end result.”

Bruce Payton, the county’s airport director, said renovating the highway will help the businesses and patrons who use the facility.

“We consider this project a tremendous stride in moving toward that front-door access to our aviation facility, and we appreciate it,” Payton said. He recounted the troubles of having to explain to people who weren’t familiar with the area how to get to the airport.

“You used to have to tell them, go out this road, make a left at the horse barn, then take that a ways,” he said. “I’m hoping we can get a nice sign pointing people our way.”

Indiana Department of Transportation officials said the highway needs significant upgrades. With traffic flow already a major issue in the area, it is only expected to get worse with Ivy Tech’s growth and the eventual construction of a multimillion-dollar life-sciences training center.

“Volume is the main thing,” INDOT’s Seymour District Planning Director Jim Ude said. “There’s just a lot of traffic coming in and out of this area.”

Just as Daniels was concluding his remarks, a fender-bender happened right in front of the Ivy Tech campus.

“A well-planned infrastructure is important to the community,” the governor said. The completion of all the Major Moves projects “will not have solved all of our problems, but we will have cleared the back burner and added hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure that will outlast our lives.”

Bloomington Economic Development Corp. president Ron Walker called the upgrades vital to the community’s success.

“Our businesses depend on our infrastructure,” Walker said. “We rely on workers, customers, and vendors from here and surrounding counties. It can become easy for us to take the public infrastructures for granted, but they’re investments in our future.”

Ude said some work is already under way, but major construction is expected to begin within the next few months. INDOT is hoping to have the renovated road open by the fall of 2009.