Changes could be coming to intersections on U.S. 30. The Indiana Department of Transportation has a series of projects proposed for fiscal years 2030 and 2031 in Marshall and Kosciusko counties.
Those include “reduced conflict intersections” at Queen Road, King Road, State Road 19 and Kosciusko County Road 800 West. That’s where traffic on U.S. 30 would still be able to turn left or right onto the cross street, but vehicles looking to cross U.S. 30 or turn left would have to first turn right and make a U-turn.
Oak Road in Plymouth could be changed to a “boulevard left turn.” That would allow traffic to cross U.S. 30 at a stoplight but would require vehicles looking to turn left from any direction to turn right then make a U-turn.
INDOT representatives discussed preliminary plans with local leaders during Wednesday’s meeting of the Michiana Area Council of Governments’ Policy Board. INDOT Deputy Commissioner Jason Kaiser said the improvements are designed to address high-crash locations and reduce travel times.
“In a lot of these locations, we’re removing traffic signals in very rural, kind of isolated locations where we have a tendency to kind of create a [speed] yo-yo effect for vehicles and especially trucks,” Kaiser explained.
INDOT sees the reduced conflict intersections as a way to balance safety, mobility and access.
Marshall County Commissioner Jesse Bohannon was pleased with the plans for U.S. 30. "It’s a bit of a relief to me," Bohannon said during Wednesday's meeting. "It’s better than what I thought we were going to get when we started having this conversation a number of years ago."
But officials from Kosciusko County were more skeptical. They felt the intersections could pose hazards to Amish residents using buggies or farmers moving large equipment. Some were also concerned that the plans prioritize lower-cost improvements, leaving busier intersections in Warsaw to be addressed in the future.
Mayor Jeff Grose said residents worry that bigger upgrades won’t come for decades. “You’re going to have to convince a lot of stakeholders and a lot of messaging to the state on what we want, why you’re not doing it and convince us that you’re not doing it because it is actually a stair step,” Grose said.
INDOT would still need to seek MACOG’s approval and hold public hearings before construction could begin. The proposed projects come after a three-year planning and environmental linkages study known as ProPEL U.S. 30.
