Residents along 109th Avenue in Crown Point will start to see relief from traffic congestion as early as this fall, according to Mayor Dave Uran.
Uran at his monthly talk at Pop’s Beef Tuesday told attendees that by late 2019, the section of 109th between Broadway and the Interstate 65 corridor will be widened though a public-private partnership between the city and Indiana Department of Transportation. Currently, construction is being done on a road cut at Broadway and Summit Street, and a right-turn lane at Superior Drive will be installed and opened in September, he said. INDOT will then coordinate the stoplights on that stretch of road.
After that’s complete, work will start then on the stretch of 109th between Broadway to just past the I-65 corridor, Uran said. The city will pay for left-hand turn lanes and concrete medians to replace the current delineators, and Strack and Van Til on Broadway will get better entrances out of the deal.
Improvements to the Delaware Parkway Corridor going north between 105th and 107th Avenues, meanwhile, will start this fall courtesy of a $25 million bond that will be paid back through that area’s tax-increment financing district.
“We couldn’t do this without the partnership of the private side; the Redevelopment Commission is a part of this as well,” Uran said. “There’s a lot of vacant land that’s out there that’s all in the TIF district. That TIF money is now going to be pledged back toward the $25 million in debt.”
Paying for the work that way will keep the risk of defaulting on the bond away from the city since future developers will assume the risk by the money generated in the TIF, Uran said.
As well, Uran said the city is negotiating with INDOT to widen 109th to four lanes under the I-65 corridor. The Delaware Parkway component is expected to be complete before that happens, though, so travelers can get to the highway without more delay.
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One resident from the area asked if stop signs could be put up at Delaware and 109th because “it is plain hell to try to get out.”
City Attorney Alex Kutanovski explained that no, they can’t, because the Federal Highway Administration guidelines require there be a justification, such as increased traffic, for the stop signs to be there.
“Right now, while the (Lake County) fair’s going on, we have stop signs for the 11 days because the traffic warrants it. Once the traffic counts are down, we remove the stop signs,” Uran said.
As for the section of 109th at Iowa and Colorado Streets, the city three years ago put in for a grant to place a three-legged roundabout at the intersection.
“We want a better traffic-oriented master plan for that area before we put more housing there,” Uran said.
The Crown Point Plan Commission last month voted 5-1 to deny a 212-lot subdivision planned for the former Fricke farm at the southwest corner of 109th and Iowa Streets because of the traffic.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.