The INDOT open house and presentation for the proposed J-turn project on US 31 at State Road 10 and 110 was well attended. In fact, the meeting room in the Argos Town Hall was over capacity just after 6 p.m. Tuesday evening so the presentation that was scheduled to begin at 6:30 started early.
This left a number of interested citizens standing in the lobby of the Argos Town Hall unable to hear any of the presentation or questions and comments. INDOT did have a number of people in the lobby to answer questions and discuss the project with maps available to view in an open house format.
of the PowerPoint presentation were handed out to those who couldn’t get into the meeting room allowing them the chance to review the presentation offered.
The proposed J-turn projects will cost approximately $1 million each and is scheduled to be completed next year.
The project proposed is to enhance the intersections safety at SR 10 and SR 110. Both intersections are among the highest 5% in crash rate throughout the entire state and have a large number of injury crashes. A graphic presented by INDOT showed 40 accidents at US 31 and SR 10 and 25 crashes at US 31 and SR110 between January 2012 and December 2016.
While INDOT is studying the US 31 corridor in consideration of making it a freeway and make SR 10 and SR 110 interchanges, it would be 8 to 12 years before a construction project could begin. In the meantime INDOT wants to improve the dangerous intersections.
The J-turn intersection will not affect drivers north and south bound on 31. Those vehicles wanting to make left turns onto SR 10 or 110 will still be able to do so. It’s the cross traffic that will be impacted by the new J-turn or Michigan Left Turn. Those drivers will have to make a right hand turn, drive a short distance on 31, change into the passing lane and then into the J-turn lane and then head back the opposite direction to make a right-hand turn onto 10 or 110.
Statistics prove J-turns reduce crashes and severity significantly.
The first J-turn intersection in Indiana was construction on US 41 at SR 114 near Morocco. The improvement was needed to reduce the number of injury accidents at the intersection. The new intersection alignment opened in May 2015 and in the following two years there have been zero injury accidents.
INDOT will be accepting comments on the project until July 10th. All comments will be reviewed, evaluated and given full consideration during the decision making process.
