By Ann Marie Shambaugh
Growth is coming to the west side of Zionsville, and town officials are taking steps to help ensure its future residents can easily get where they need to go.
The town has selected an approximate route for a future two-lane north-south road to connect Oak Street and Whitestown Road. Its southern point will be where Cooper Road currently dead ends at Oak Street. It will head northeast to connect with S 875 E at Cruse Road. The project includes improving S 875 E from Cruse Road to Whitestown Road.
“This project is included in our 1983 Transportation Plan and following the engineering study, which is near completion, now there is priority to begin construction on it in 2019,” Zionsville Mayor Tim Haak said. “With the residential expansion we are seeing in western Zionsville and the new neighborhoods coming online, improved north-south connectivity is really needed. And the residential growth and other developments in this area will only continue in the future.”
New neighborhoods including Hampshire and Pemberton are planned near the project area. They are expected to include more than 300 new homes. Lance Lantz, Zionsville superintendent of street and stormwater services, said the town is proactively working to improve traffic flow in the area before it becomes a problem.
“Those people are all going to want to head south in general,” Lantz said. “There’s got to be a better and more efficient alternative offered for those people in time so when those neighborhoods start to see 50 or 75 percent capacity there is a road other than Ford Road for people to go south.”
The project is expected to include a 10-foot multi-use path and roundabouts at Oak Street and Whitestown Road. Earlier this month the Zionsville Town Council approved using $220,000 from the Cumulative Capital Development Fund to include engineering work for the roundabouts as part of the project.
The project is estimated to cost $5 million, Lantz said. The town is planning to issue a bond to pay for it.
Nearly 30 parcels of land will be affected by the project, Lantz said, adding that the town has sent letters to those affected and had conversations with some of the property owners. He said he hasn’t received much feedback yet, since the project is still in its early stages.
Engineering work will continue this year, with land acquisition planned for 2018 and construction beginning in 2019.
