Open house on Willowcreek Road extension set Tuesday
Residents still frustrated over lack of communication
A Porter County consultant for the Willowcreek Road extension is hosting an open house about the project’s preferred route Tuesday but those opposed to the project, who are concerned about the loss of their rural quality of life and agricultural livelihood, said a lack of communication about the project and even the open house continues to frustrate them.
“It’s supposed to be public but nothing’s been made public,” said Andy Hardesty, whose parents’ farm on County Road 650 West in Union Township sits in the path of the road extension. “Unless you’re in the immediate community that’s going to be impacted, you were not notified. I’m definitely frustrated with how public it’s supposed to be and how public it’s not.”
Notice of the meeting, at the Porter County Expo Center, is on the website put together by American Structurepoint for the project but is not available on the county’s website.
Hardesty said residents also received a different description of the road’s preferred route than what was on the project website, though Robert Thompson, director of the county’s Department of Development and Storm Water Management, said American Structurepoint sent out corrected notices once they found out about the error, which Hardesty confirmed.
Thompson said he had not seen the first letter or the revised one that went to residents who live in the road’s path, though he’d fielded calls about the discrepancy.
“I do not have copies of it,” he said.
Neither do a lot of residents in the area who did not receive meeting notices, said Liz Bennett, who lives near the route with her partner Kyle Duarte, a lifelong Wheeler resident, and has been instrumental in starting an online petition against the roadway and organizing opposition in the community, including signs along Indiana 130 through Wheeler and
a Facebook page.
“We do think it’s been evident that pressure from the public is showing the need for this meeting and more information,” she said. “However, it appears the mailing list has not been updated, leaving people in critical areas of the project uninformed.”
Union Township residents have said the road extension, with a design speed of 55 mph, per the project’s website, will disrupt their rural quality of life with the potential for high-speed traffic, ruin multigenerational farms including the Hardesty farm and destroy the small town feel of Wheeler, among other concerns.
Local officials and the project website, meanwhile, have said the project, discussed for decades and part of the county’s master plan, is a necessary north-south thoroughfare in west central Porter County, providing connectivity to major highways, alleviating traffic congestion on other roads, tackling drainage problems and providing for future development and road capacity.
According to documents on the Willowcreek Road project website, the estimated total cost of the preferred route in September 2020 was $27.88 million, giving it the second-lowest price tag of the six routes initially under consideration. An anticipated 80% of the cost will be paid for with federal funds, an official with American Structurepoint said during an online presentation that was part of the public meeting that month.
Indiana 49 now serves as the only north-south thoroughfare from one end of the county to the other. Its north point ends at Indiana Dunes State Park in Chesterton and it continues south through the entire length of the county.
Other considered routes, including an extension of Indiana 149, weren’t feasible for an assortment of reasons, including price and environmental concerns.
American Structurepoint has a contract with the county, approved during an April 23, 2019, commissioners meeting, for just over $1 million for completion of a road study, environmental study and engineering work for the first phase of the road. The county funded 20% of the contract, per the minutes from that meeting, and the Northern Indiana Regional Planning Commission covered the remaining 80% with federal funds.
During an April 19 commissioners meeting this year, the board approved another contract with American Structurepoint for more than $1.47 million, again with a 20⁄80 match from NIRPC, for engineering of the second phase of the road extension project, including bridges over Indiana 130 and two railroads, and a connecting road. The second phase runs from Indiana 130 to County Road 650 East, according to meeting minutes on the county’s website.
The preferred route, according to the project website, “will begin at U S 30, approximately 0.38 mile east of CR 725 W, continue north for approximately 1.45 miles before curving slightly northeast and continuing for approximately 0.85 mile where it will align with Jones Road. The alignment will continue along the current Jones Road alignment crossing over the Chicago, Fort Wayne and Eastern Railroad line (CFWER) and Norfolk Southern Railroad (NSR) tracks. The roadway then curves slightly east, away from the Jones Road alignment, and continues north until tying into the existing intersection of Willowcreek Road and CR 700 N.”
The route requires acquiring 55.2 acres of right of way; relocating two businesses in central Wheeler; impacts 44.6 acres of farmland; and impacts 0.35 acres of wetlands.
“Alignment A-1 best addresses the purpose and need of the project while balancing the impacts in the project area,” the website notes, adding that no residences need to be relocated and the wetlands impact was the least significant of the considered routes.
Scott Farrell, an environmental project manager with American Structure Point who also is listed on the project website as its contact, deferred comment about the meeting to county officials.
“Structurepoint will be giving the presentation. It’s just going to be discussing the preferred alternative route and showing it to the public,” Thompson said.
Officials, who also held an open house about the project in September 2020, are holding another one because an environmental report, also being conducted by American Structurepoint, likely won’t be complete for another year, with a public hearing taking place in early 2024, Thompson said.
The environmental report, required by the Federal Highway Administration to check for wetlands, historical structures and contamination along the route, was originally going to be done for the first phase of the project, from the endpoint of Willowcreek Road at County Road 700 North at Portage’s southern border to Indiana 130.
The federal agency, Thompson said, asked for the study to be done for the full length of the road extension to U.S. 30, which takes more time.
“We went ahead and regrouped,” he said.
Whether the open house will address the concerns of residents who live in the planned road’s path remains to be seen.
“We’re still frustrated but hope word of this meeting spreads and that people will be able to attend to show that we are not alone in our concerns against this project,” Bennet said. “This extension poses to change the entire structure of our community, it’s a big deal and life changing for a lot of our residents and we hope Porter County is taking the repercussions seriously.”
The open house starts at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Porter County Expo Center, 215 E. Division Road, Valparaiso, with a presentation about the project by representatives from American Structurepoint, followed by the opportunity to visit stations focused on different aspects of the project.
For more information on the Willowcreek Road extension, go to https:// www.willowcreekexten sion.com/. alavalley@chicagotribune. com