The Westfield City Council unanimously approved an interlocal agreement between the Indiana Dept. of Transportation and the City of Westfield that may bring a widened Ind. 32 to drivers earlier than expected.
The agreement is a 50/50 split for $15 million to widen Ind. 32 from Poplar Street to East Street. The cost includes right-of-way acquisition, construction and construction management costs.
The project could start as early as November with a determining a design and setting up an initial survey and environmental processes.
“The environmental survey includes (evaluating) everything historical in our historical district downtown,” Director of Public Works Jeremy Lollar said. “Those processes take a while, so construction will begin in 2022 with the final wrap up in 2024.”
If the interlocal agreement wasn’t established, the City of Westfield may not see a widened Ind. 32 until 2028.
Council president Jim Ake said INDOT approached the city with the option of the interlocal agreement to expedite the process of widening the road. If bids come in much more expensive than planned, Westfield has the opportunity to back out of the agreement.
“The project INDOT has for 2028, it is just a reconstructing of the existing roadway,” Mayor Andy Cook said. “It adds no lanes, has no roundabout or intersection improvement at East Street. It is just a reconstruction of what we already have.”
As part of the design process, INDOT and Westfield both will look at alternative traffic patterns.
“The environmental process looks at alternative traffic patterns and (completes) a detailed traffic study for projections of what future traffic will be,” Lollar said. “The federal requirement mandates we do that. As far as taking everything to the south (of Ind. 32 in order to widen it) historically, we don’t know the answer to that yet.”
Public input meetings will be scheduled as the project advances. For more, visit westfield.in.gov.
