Several updates to Boone County roads are among plans to improve central Indiana’s transportation network floated by the Central Regional Logistics Council.
Created by Conexus Indiana, the CRLC brought together business and industry groups to craft what is called “Strengthening the Crossroads: Driving Central Indiana’s Logistics Industry.”
The plan identifies 74 infrastructure projects that will bring short- and long-term success to businesses and residents in central Indiana, said Mark DeFabis, president and CEO of Integrated Distribution Services Inc. and the CRLC’s chairman.
The likelihood of the Conexus wish list becoming reality is unknown.
Projects with an impact on Boone County include:
• An “outer loop” to connect Interstates 65 and 69, running through Boone, Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks, Johnson, Madison and Morgan counties, although the path of that highway has not been determined.
• Extension of the Ronald Reagan Parkway to state Route 267 in Boone County. That could also be part of a redesigned interchange with I-65 that would ease congestion caused by heavy truck and passenger car traffic.
• Widening U.S. 421 to three lanes from W.126th St. in Zionsville to SR 28 in Frankfort, again to eliminate traffic bottlenecks.
• Rebuilding the I-65/SR 267 interchange at the 133 mile marker to reduce congestion caused by trucks and vehicles going to Allpoints at Anson and businesses along Indianapolis Road in Whitestown.
Reactions to the logistics council’s proposal from local officials were mixed.
Lebanon Mayor Huck Lewis said an outer-outer loop would have to follow a new route.
“If they are going to build another 465 and it’s a loop, it’s going to have to be a new road,” Lewis said. “I don’t know of any road that would work, to start an outer loop like that, the way they are configured today.”
When Lewis was a commissioner, he and others were pushing to get the Ronald Reagan Parkway extended into Boone County, and they were in talks with INDOT.
“They wanted us to take over SR 267, and that would be the Ronald Reagan,” Lewis said. “Finally, INDOT decided they wanted that further out, so it just kind of died.”
“I bet they still don’t really have a concrete plan as to where that would be,” Lewis said.
The existing Ronald Reagan Parkway was not built to be an I-465 replacement, Lewis said, citing the road’s design in Hendricks County.
Whitestown Town Manager Dax Norton said upgrading the I-65/SR 267 intersection is critical, but so too is improving the intersection at I-65 and Whitestown Parkway, at the 130 mile marker.
“We’ve known 133 is INDOT’s priority over 130,” Norton said. “The primary reason being that 133 is the high job producing area.
“It’s been noted by the development community that the lack of egress out of Allpoints at Anson is becoming a stumbling block to closing deals,” Norton said.
Improvements to the intersection included two northbound off-ramps, one for traffic going south on SR 267, the other turning east onto Albert S. White Boulevard. While those changes eased incoming traffic, outbound traffic must still negotiate four intersections in only a few hundred feet.
Whitestown would welcome updating the SR 267 interchange as a top priority, Norton said. But retail and residential growth must be just as important to the town, and that growth will come at Whitestown Parkway.
“ I think this shows there are all kinds of infrastructure issues,” Norton said.
Zionsville Mayor Jeff Papa said that if the updates on U.S. 421 advanced traffic and safety, “then it would be helpful — as long as it takes into account local opinion, and doesn’t cause serious, permanent issues.”
Norton and Papa both noted that the road plan neglected a topic vital to their communities — pedestrian and bicycle paths.
The Farm Heritage Trail needs to be a county priority, Norton said. “That’s one of those things that gets people on their feet and on their bicycles, and it will get used,” he said.
The trail runs from Colfax to the northwest side of Lebanon, and sections are being built in Whitestown that will eventually tie it to Zionsville’s trail network. But there remains a gap between Lebanon and Whitestown that should be eliminated, Norton said. “Both ends have to be connected.”
Adding safe walking and bicycling routes is “really critical, especially on 421,” Papa said. “We are already in need of and wanting a pedestrian route along there, and bike access.”
Before U.S. 421 was widened south from 116th Street, there was a narrow berm that could be used — at high risk — by walkers and bicyclists. That berm was eliminated, for safety reasons, and replaced with rumble strips. The change eliminated the ability to walk — even dangerously — on the pavement, Papa said.
A sidewalk runs along the west side of U.S. 421 only as far north as Templin Road (CR 550 S). The four-lane stretch of U.S. 421 necks down to two lanes just past that intersection.
Six subdivision entrances intersect with U.S. 421 from Templin Road (which is known locally as West 121st Street or CR 550 S) to just north of West 146th Street (CR 300 S).
“There are so many neighborhoods that are isolated,” Papa said. “It almost requires going by car.”
Building sidewalks along U.S. 421 would be “a huge benefit” for Zionsville, he said. “If they are going to do a project like that, it would make a lot of people happy and improve safety,” he said.