Two proposed intersection projects on U.S. 30 have gotten an unfavorable recommendation from local officials.
The Indiana Department of Transportation is looking to install “median U-turns” at State Road 19 and Kosciusko County Road 800 West. That would likely mean vehicles crossing U.S. 30 would first have to turn right, make a U-turn and go back to the intersection.
But the Amish community is nervous about having to pull their buggies into 60-mile-per-hour highway traffic to try to get across, according to Kosciusko County Highway Superintendent Steve Moriarty. “They currently have 30 families that live south of U.S. 30 that travel north to school,” Moriarty told the rest of the Michiana Area Council of Governments’ Transportation Technical Advisory Committee on Wednesday.
The committee gave those projects an unfavorable recommendation. They now go to MACOG’s policy board.
Still, the committee did recommend moving forward with an engineering scoping report for U.S. 30 through Warsaw.
Dirk Schmidt with INDOT said it would further refine cost estimates, for projects proposed by the recent ProPEL U.S. 30 study. “This study would be looking at some of the higher-end alternatives, in particular, and the costs associated with those, as well as the impacts,” Schmidt explained.
INDOT has pledged to invest at least $30 million a year into improvements along U.S. 30 and U.S. 31.
