Input taken on U.S. 231 rerouting project

By Matt Holsapple, Journal and Courier

Community members came together Thursday to give input into a highway project slated to continue the rerouting of U.S. 231 past West Lafayette.

The project's Community Advisory Committee met with representatives of Merrillville-based Michael Baker Jr. Inc. and the Indiana Department of Transportation to assist in the community impact assessment of the project.

Michael Baker Jr. Inc. is working on the final phase of the bypass, connecting Indiana 26 and U.S. 52 northwest of the city. Last year, the first phase was completed, running the highway to South River Road. Plans are in place to bring it from South River Road to State Street.

Ten routes are being considered for the highway. The Community Advisory Committee's job is to give the group input about the community's makeup and trends, to determine which route will cause the least disturbance.

The National Environmental Policy Act requires that every federal highway project take into account the affect that construction will have on the environment. Project manager Wendy Vachet said, however, that companies also look at the way projects impact the people living in a community.

"One thing that I always hear brought up at every meeting I've ever been at is, 'Why are bugs and bunnies more important than I am?' " said Vachet.

That is where community impact assessment comes in, said Lorna Jarkins, also with the firm. The process attempts to look at ways that transportation construction will affect the community around it.

"A lot of times the focus is on who's going to be displaced by the project," said Jarkins. "We also want to look at how the project is going to affect the people that aren't moved, the ones who are going to have to live around it."

The Community Advisory Committee looked at several different factors, including neighborhoods, business districts and parks and recreational facilities. They also voiced concerns about more intangible quality-of-life issues that could be affected by construction.

Some of the proposed routes would cut through large amounts of farmland, and Jon Harbor, of the Sherwood Forest Neighborhood, said he hoped that would also be taken into account.

"Soil and prime farmland never seem to rank too highly in urban projects," he said.