Opinion
Project moves ahead quickly
IF YOU GO:
• WHAT: Informational meeting concerning segment two of the Hoosier Heartland project in Carroll County.
• WHEN: 6:30 p.m. Aug. 27
• WHERE: Delphi High School, 501 Armory Road.
• QUESTIONS: Go to www.in.gov/dot/projects/
sr25study, or call public involvement director Aimee Kindred at (317) 234-4938.
Cass County representatives got good news last week in a meeting to discuss progress on the final segment of the Hoosier Heartland.
Work is moving ahead, highway department officials said, and it might even finish sooner than anticipated.
It will, at least, if Gov. Mitch Daniels has his way. Indiana Department of Transportation officials acknowledged last week that Daniels had suggested at a recent meeting that he’d like to see a completion date in 2012, a year ahead of the current schedule.
The Indiana Department of Transportation is now buying real estate in each of the four segments of the final 31-mile stretch of highway. Officials expect to be making offers to property owners in the Delphi area this fall. Offers have already been made on the stretch of road near Rockfield, Burrows and Clymers.
Officials hope to begin making offers in the Logansport area by the end of the year, and they say any property owner hoping to speed up the negotiations can give Aimee Kindred, the project’s public involvement director, a call.
According to the latest schedule, work will begin near Clymers this fall. Construction is scheduled to be under way in all four segments by the end of next year.
That’s great news for those who thought they might never see the completion of this project. The organization formed to advocate construction of the highway is heading toward its 27th anniversary.
Far too many of those who worked so hard to bring this project to fruition will not live to see it finally finished.
In the end, the $500 million highway will connect Interstates 65 and 69. Combined with a Fort to Port project from Fort Wayne to Toledo, the highway is certain to be a boost to the economies of communities from Lafayette to Lake Erie, and cities all along the proposed route are making plans to capitalize.
The biggest benefit of the project, though, will be safety. For those who frequently travel the stretch of Ind. 25 between Lafayette and Logansport, the completion of the project can’t come quickly enough.
– Pharos-Tribune, Logansport, and Kokomo Tribune
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