By KEVIN NEVERS

It’s been a year since the Chesterton Town Council voted 3-2 to permanently close the intersection of South Calumet Road and 11100N, as part of the South Calumet Business District project and at the recommendation of the Redevelopment Commission.

Yet Member Jim Ton, R-1st—who with former member Frank Sessa, D-2nd, was in the minority in that vote—is still being asked by constituents why that intersection needs to be closed. Many of them, as he told the Redevelopment Commission at its meeting Monday night, remain persuaded of the “feasibility” of keeping the intersection open for northbound traffic only, as motorists turn westbound on 1100N from Ind. 49.

“I’m still getting these questions asked,” Ton said.

For the record, then, he ventured, would Town Engineer Mark O’Dell explain the rationale for the total closure of the intersection?

O’Dell offered three reasons:

•Eventually, O’Dell said—as volume increases on Ind. 49 with continued development—the Indiana Department of Transportation will probably construction dual left-turn lanes from northbound Ind. 49 onto westbound 1100N. When that happens, motorists in the outside lane will not have enough “weave distance” to move to the inside lane if they wish to turn right onto northbound South Calumet Road.

•If the intersection were to remain open for northbound traffic only, at some point on South Calumet Road southbound traffic would have to be stopped, most logically at the connector road. And that point, where the southbound lane pinched out and the northbound lane continued on, would become a likely place for head-on collisions.

•Finally, if the intersection were to remain open for northbound traffic only, southbound scofflaws would still try to turn left onto westbound 1100N if they missed the connector road. Both a pork chop would have to be installed as a deterrent to turning right onto westbound 1100N, and a median wall as a deterrent to turning left onto northbound South Calumet Road. And even a pork chop would be unlikely to prove an absolute deterrent because a northbound lane which is wide enough to accommodate semi-tractor trailers turning right onto northbound South Calumet Road would be wide enough to allow scofflaws to turn right onto westbound 1100N.

For his part Member Josh Lantz said that the decision to permanently close the intersection was based, as much as anything, on anticipated traffic volumes five, 10, and 20 years down the road. “From my perspective,” he said, “it’s strictly a planning issue.”

Ton thanked O’Dell and the Redevelopment Commission for their time.

Appraisals

In other business, members voted 4-0 to recommend to the Town Council the retaining of Vale Appraisal Group to appraise all 32 parcels which must be acquired for right-of-way as part of the South Calumet Business District project and e.Valuations to appraise five of those parcels. Member Dave Cincoski, R-3rd, was not in attendance.

At its meeting later in the evening the Town Council voted unanimously to retain both Vale Appraisal Group and e.Valuations.

Town Attorney Chuck Lukmann noted that some property owners in the project area have already received letters from the appraisers asking to meet and in some cases requesting information.

Lukmann added that the appraisals will probably cost in the area of $60,000 and remarked that it has proved necessary to acquire more right-of-way than anyone had expected because INDOT did not in all places retain 40- to 50-foot strips along Ind. 49. Indeed, he said, in some places, the state right-of-way ends at the edge of the pavement.

Claims

Members also voted 4-0 to approve four claims: two from Harris Welsh & Lukmann in the amounts of $4,135 and $1,542.50; and two from DLZ, the contracted project engineer, in the amounts of $39,175 and $30,580.

Posted 1/30/2008