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For decades, U.S. 31 has been a vital transportation cooridor for our region.

In 2022, several major improvements occurred that made trips north and south faster and safer.

We'll take a closer look at those improvements and talk about what's next for the corridor.

Coming up on Economic Outlook.

For decades, business, government and community leaders have been advocating for improvements to the U.S. 31 corridor, a vital transportation link for our region.

2022 saw the commencement of several critical projects and the completion of one major connection.

But much work remains to be completed to finish the goal of a freeway between Saint Joe Benton Harbor and Indianapolis.

Joining me today for a deeper dove into what's next for the corridor.

On US 31 are John Letherman, the chairman emeritus of the U.S. 31 Coalition, and Laurie Maudlin the executive director of the U.S. 31 Coalition.

Laurie, John, thank you.

Appreciate you guys joining us today.

John going to come your way.

So, John, when, you know, thinking back, you've been involved in the U.S. 31 coalition effort for for quite a few years.

Talk a little bit about why this was an important priority for you to spend your time on.

Well, when I first went the Army, I ended up stationed at Fort Benjamin Harrison, running the motor pool and we had cars and trucks and little busses and things.

And it became very obvious quickly that when I was a kid, we always went to Chicago for everything.

But Indianapolis is just as good, if not better.

And and I I've always thought that for our part of the world, it was a good thing to have free way from here to Indianapolis so we could get there at a reasonable time and participate in things within the state.

So I kind of got started talking about it.

I got my wife and I were in a car.

We were down by a Grissom air base and it was a one lane bridge.

I don't know if you remember that, but we're sitting there in this one lane bridge with a kid behind us crying and nobody's moving.

And she says, If you do anything do something about this.

So we got a thing together between this, between the Chamber of Commerce and South Bend and Elkhart started having meetings and that resulted in going to see the governor.

And he said, Well, I can't do anything about this.

You're going to have to form a group.

So the US 31 coalition was formed sometime in the early nineties and we've been working on it with, with the folks at the state ever since.

Laurie, let me come your way.

So when I think about US 31, I think in the early days people were looking for a way to get around Kokomo and all the stoplights, but it was so much more than just that.

Can you talk to us a little bit about kind of the coalition itself, you know, kind of what it does.

Who are some of the the key stakeholders that are involved in that effort?

Absolutely.

The coalition is made up of groups and people throughout the corridor.

So it's certainly not just kind of somebody on the northern end who's just wanting to get to Indianapolis.

It's we have representatives from Tipton County, Fulton County, Miami, Marshall, as well as Hamilton Howard and Saint Joe and Elkhart Counties.

And those people are involved because, you know, they travel to their jobs on 31.

31 is their main street.

So they want to be able to have that connectivity to the other communities and just have a safer route to get to where they want to go as well.

Great.

So can you maybe stay with you for a second?

And let's talk historical because, boy, we've watched in recent years significant improvements have happened in that corridor.

Can you look back a little bit and talk about maybe a couple of those major milestones or those major projects that helped get US 31 going?

Absolutely.

So Cash, back when Governor Daniels came into office, a lot of studies were going on on the corridor, the St Joe Marshall County Projects were going on.

Howard County and Hamilton Counties all had elements, quarter understudy doing environmental study, planning, study and we felt like it had been studied a lot.

There had been quarter wide sort studies, there had been gradual studies.

And when Governor Daniels came in, this was one of the projects that he wanted to get off of the books and moving very quickly.

So these projects were the first ones to move to construction after he came in and kind of jumpstarted the transportation program.

It was actually intended that Hamilton County would go first and then kind of move up the quarter north.

But as it turns out, of course, the very northern portion, Saint Joe and Marshall Counties and Howard County projects, those both opened on the same day and then Hamilton County opened after that.

And just from those three segments within the full quarter, we saw huge benefits in the speed of traffic getting to Indianapolis more quickly as well as the safety.

And we knew that with the the the success of those three, the, the the full corridor would provide just amazing more benefits.

Right.

John, let me come your way.

When I think of your historical involvement, you've sat across the table from governors and from Department of Transportation.

You know, directors and business leaders, others trying to convince them of why this is important.

Indiana is the crossroads of America.

But why?

What did you tell those governors?

Why 31 ought to be the priority for them?

Because we want to be able to participate in in government and we want to be able to make the capital of the state of Indiana the place where we go for all kinds of things to, you know, cheer for the for sports teams, all kinds of stuff.

I started talking with Otis Bowen probably 50 years ago, and he he got a lot of the of the parts parts that were going through the cities moved out.

So we had a straight corridor.

And then Joe Kernan, when he when he was down there, I don't know if you were with us, but a bunch of us went down to see him and said, we need you to help fix this.

And he said, I can't.

I have to have a lot of people involved.

You need to form a group.

So we formed a group and then it really got going sometime mid-nineties.

And then the fellow by the name was Dennis Falkenberg, who was our executive director for a long time, came along and he'd been at INDOT for many years, so he knew where to go and who to talk to.

And between Dennis Falkenberg and and Mitch Daniels, things really got going.

The problem is, just because we can get around Kokomo now without 15 stoplights doesn't mean we're done.

We still have a lot of things to do.

Right.

John, I want to stick with you for a quick second.

So you're your day job is historically you're in the real estate business.

You're in the business of selling of trying to convince companies to locate here.

Talk to us about the economic development perspective and why that corrido is so critical.

We have seen significant new buildings and companies go along the corridor as as things got better, particularly down in Miami County, that things are going to go boom.

If we can get access in and out in a good way.

And it allows statewide things in business as opposed to small town things.

So all the small towns will suddenly become linked if we can get that thing going as a freeway.

Right.

Laurie, let me come back to your way.

And you touched on two things.

And, you know, maybe speaking wrong from my end, but speed is important to me.

I want to get into Indianapolis faster and obviously that the corridor helps.

You talked about safety as well to talk about the the safety priority, because I think people forget about how critical that is.

Why is that been such an important message here on the corridor?

Yeah, that's as important as the economic development.

You know, during COVID, we saw speeds increase that are actually nationwide on the roadways.

Just the police weren't out as much.

There were fewer drivers out.

People really took advantage of that.

And we've seen nationally that speeds have not slowed down since COVID, if it in fact, they only increased.

And you can see that anywhere you go, whether it's an interstate or, you know, your local road.

But that's been really obvious on US 31.

We did take a look at some of the speeds on different segments of 31.

That's unimproved at this point.

And there's a percentage of the traffic that's going over 90 miles an hour.

So obviously, that's a real concern.

We've seen an increase in accident rates.

Also, just back in 2015, we had an economic analysis done and they projected that if US 31 is approved for the full corridor from South Bend all the way to Indianapolis, that there would be over or almost 1200 fewer accidents a year and over 300 fewer injuries a year.

That's not even including fatalities on top of that.

So if that many are being reduced, you know how many are actually happening out there.

So it's just really a problem.

Great.

I'd like the record to reflect that.

It wasn't me going 90.

Up and down that quarter, I promise.

I was much closer to the normal speed limit there.

So yeah, but if you're driving 70, somebody is passing you going 90.

That's true.

Happens all the time.

Exactly.

Guys, want to take a quick break here in the studio.

We're going to go out into the field.

We sent George Lepeniotis my co-host out to Michigan to show an important U.S. 31 connection that happened this last year.

George, let me toss it to you.

Thanks, Jeff.

I am literally by the side of the road, as we often like to joke while you're in the warm studio.

But I am joined today by MDOT spokesman Nick Schirripa.

Nick, thanks for being with us.

Thanks for having me.

Nick We are at a project or the completion of a project that is near and dear to many people's hearts around here.

And it is the connection of U.S. 31 to I-94 96, 196, that whole corridor.

And really the conclusion of 40 years of construction.

Can you tell us a little bit about the history of what we call the U.S. 31 bypass?

Sure.

It started back in 1970, 71 when we started building that first stretch of the state line up to us.

12 finished in 1972 and that kind of kick the ball down the hill, so to speak, and got the ball rolling and stopped right about 2004 at Napier Avenue with the Mitchell Cedar Butterfly and the Blue Book Creek Wren.

That's kind of where everything's been.

It was on hold for a while, and just this year, about a month ago, we finished two months ago in early November.

We finished this last stretch from Napier Avenue up to I-94 and finish that connection.

And yeah, it's been a generational project to be a part of and it's been a lot of fun to watch happen.

Certainly for the community it's in, for the communities it connects, for the businesses it connects.

It's been a big project.

Yeah.

And you know, I want to unpack the timeline, then I want to move on to kind of the business importance of this highway.

It is a U.S. highway.

It is Highway 31.

And as you affectionately said before we went on camera, it goes from Lexington, Kentucky, to the Mackinaw Bridge.

Yes, it does.

So that's a big stretch of of many states, many communities, and really does link all of those communities together.

But our little stretch of Michiana, at least on the Michigan side, because you're with MDOT, started in 1970, 72, and it started to work out when it stopped in the early 2000s because of the butterflies.

What was that process of re-imagining how to finish the connection?

You know, it was a process.

It took several years.

So in the mid-nineties, we identified that we had to move the blueprint, the footprint of the highway.

We couldn't go straight north and connect with 196 that I-94.

We knew that.

So we really just had to go through the process of identifying a new route to take from Napier Avenue up to I-94.

And it's not just as easy as drawing on a piece of paper and then making it happen, right?

I mean, there were there are other people's personal property is involved.

And how do we get from A to B and have the least impact the least impact possible, not just from a personal property standpoint, but from an environmental standpoint, transportation standpoint, a geography standpoint.

Obviously, there's hills we have to contend with and curves we have to contend with.

And, you know, that all comes into play.

And when you were reimagining it, you actually were thinking about some other ideas.

Right.

And we're going to get to the the funding in a second.

But one of the ideas was that you knew you had some work to do to Interstate 94 in and around Central Benton Harbor to expand on some some a interchange and make some access easier for folks.

So you combine those two projects and part of it was funding.

What was your total budget for this project?

121.5 million.

We'll call 120 million for fun.

And those funds came both from the federal government and the state of Michigan.

And they you got federal funding in part because you were also messing with 94.

Yeah.

So we had to find a new spot in 94 to connect this south leg of us.

31.

But we also wanted to make sure that the south leg of the north leg of U.S. 31 were contiguous, so to speak.

So we had to rebuild two interchanges and add a seventh lane to I-95 four.

So if you're on US 31 coming up from South Bend and you get to I-94 and you want to keep going north on us 31, you never have to touch I-94.

You never intermingle with I-94 traffic.

There is a dedicated auxiliary lane from US 31, US 31 that connects the two.

I got it.

And when you say us 31 to us 31 at that connection point, going north beyond Benton Harbor, it is also shared.

It's a shared road with 196.

Right.

U.S. 31 and I96 are contiguous up to about Holland really split off.

Yeah, got it.

Got it.

Now heading back south, it connects.

As our viewers know, we are the Michiana PBS station.

So that is our region.

It connects with South Bend and some of those other communities.

And I think it's a longtime goal in our last episode up here that you might have been a part of was was about that connection and the traffic that we see has I'm not started doing some of the studies.

And do you have an anticipation of how many people actually use the road?

You know, we have an idea of how many people use them now.

We have an idea of how many what kind of vehicle numbers we have now.

Five years ago, ten years ago.

It's going to take time to really be able to look at those numbers that we get this year, next year, five years from now.

But that takes time.

Rebuilding those data sets is something that it's the long play.

It's not something we can look at next year and say with any kind of definitive yes or no that it was worth it.

Yeah, empirically, it takes time.

Anecdotally, we know it's worth it.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

When we thought about getting to that Napier Avenue exit, getting off at that Napier Avenue exit, some of the restrictions and limitations of that small county road.

Napier is a great road, but it's just a county road that this this obviously is, as our as our viewers can see behind us, has made a massive change.

So, you know, on a final thought, Nick, I know you've got other projects.

You're with MDOT.

So you're across the state.

This has been kind of a fun project to watch develop, hasn't it?

Again, generational.

We don't get to build new highway like this very often.

It's been an amazing, an amazing experience.

More for the engineers I get to work with.

Right?

I get to talk about it.

They actually get to build it and to watch them light up like kids and grizzlies have been a lot of fun.

Well, thank you.

Thank you for being with us.

Thanks for having us here.

Jeff, back to you in the studio.

We're going to talk more about the connections that make our community better, but really, this is such a big development and I encourage all of you to come see the final connection of US 31 George, thank you.

Appreciate what a great look at a project.

Long time coming, Laurie In our break, we we saw the the completion of a pretty important project on the Michigan end of US 31 drive in the Indiana side of the corridor.

I was there recently and saw major construction happening down near Baker's Corner and it Tipton.

So talk to us a little bit about what's happening in the corridor right now from a construction standpoint.

Sure.

So there's 70 miles of unequipped or unimproved roadway right now, and Hamilton County is working on five miles of that to improve it.

We've got construction already completed on 236 Street, Baker's Corner, their completion, their the 276th Street interchange in Hamilton County people may know it by the John Deere dealership Becks hybrids is there as well that is that was a lot earlier this year so it will be completed very soon.

And then we've got from State Road 38 all the way to 276 Street, some pretty to all of Hamilton County is going to be completed to freeway standards by 24, 25.

So that's really exciting.

So that will be taken off of that 70 miles that we have left to do.

And then in Marshall County, we have a couple of projects that are upcoming as well.

And those plan to go to construction in 27 and they're going to be improving the state road 10 Us 31 interchange as well as the state Route 110 US 31 interchange and doing a bridge at 700 north in Fulton County, which is a passageway that a lot of Amish populations use.

So that will provide a safe access for them to move from one side of 31 to the other.

And then, of course, we've got the railroad overpass in Tipton County, which is underway and just an enormous project.

If anyone is driving down that way.

And the Marshall County railroad overpass will be starting this year.

So we've got a lot going on right now.

Honestly, pretty exciting to drive through the corridor and see that much happening.

You know, John, as I'm driving through this, I think a little bit about this.

This has been an important priority for us in northern Indiana and up throughout the corridor going back 30, 40 years.

But during that time, a lot of changes in leadership.

We've had to keep it up front.

Talk to a little bit about kind of some of the the key partners and what what this magic formula has been for kind of the sustained success we're having there.

Well, Governor Holcomb has been very helpful and Mike Pence, when he was governor, worked with us.

I suppose most most of the work that got done that was obvious around Kokomo was when Mitch was here.

But those guys have all been helpful.

And we've been trying to be, as a coalition, helpful to them.

We've got a really new good guy now, as INDOT commissioner guy named Mike Smith, and he's been he's working with us to try to accelerate some of this stuff up north because I think there was an accident at 10 over the weekend and somebody got killed.

And and I called him.

I said, what are we?

He says, I'll push, see what I can do.

We have to remember that we're in competition with probably 50 other projects around the state of Indiana, so we can't be growling and yelling at them and that kind of thing.

We want to be we want to try to be helpful to them.

The US 31 coalition tries to tries to do that, but one of our problems is everybody thinks it's done because you get around Kokomo, you're not going to do all those lights.

So if anybody is listening, could pass on a little bit of money.

We don't need millions, but we need, you know, we need a few thousand dollars so that we can keep the folks at Big Idea who have been helping us with marketing and so forth so we can keep them going.

And if we can do that, I think we can have a positive effect.

The the plan that's going now is bringing all the people around the interchanges that are happening so they get their pitch and all the people that live there.

And we've got to remember the the farmers like in Fulton County because they got to get over with their equipment.

So we're talking about some overpasses, too, just to help them keep going.

But if we can if we can keep it moving, hopefully you and I'll drive it before we're not able to drive anymore.

That's right, Laurie.

And come back your way and John touched on INDOT and the state and the priority I know recently the state has been talking about kind of next phase as you talk about several projects already in the works.

But we all know I think there's, as John said, several to go after that.

Talk to us about the effort that the state is undertaking now to plan for continued improvements in the corridor The state has undertaken, a study is called a Planning an Environmental Linkage Study or a Health Study, and INDOT is doing the study for us 30 and 31, two major corridors that need improvement and what they're doing.

This is really a it's a very new way of looking at a project.

So I think this is exciting.

The 31 is one of the very first projects kind of in this system.

But what they're doing is they're looking at the corridor and asking everyone along the corridor businesses, homeowners, agricultural community, everybody to come and tell them what they see.

US 31 should be in 30 years, which is amazing to think about.

Nobody sits there and goes I wonder what this road will look like in 30 years, but this is a chance that we all have to say this is what we want it to be.

This is what we want our community to be, how we want it to flourish with an improved US 31 Where should access points be?

Where should we put developments?

We should.

Overpasses, as John mentioned, be all of those things to take care of the safety issues, the economic development issues.

They do have a website it's proposal 31 dot com and anyone can go on there and look at what they're doing.

They're doing a lot of public meetings, a lot of community meetings where people can just come in and talk to them about this.

So it's a pretty exciting process we're involved in, and I think we can make a really amazing 31 corridor at the end of the day.

Great, Laurie, and stay with you for a second or last 4 minutes or so.

Talk a little bit about road funding in particular.

So obviously, we're not the only you know, this quarter is not the only priority for INDOT and there are priorities all across the crossroads of America to to keep them.

What's the general state of how do you fund these?

Where do you get money for this?

How do you plan for a big investment like we continue to need on US 31?

Oh INDOT does receive its money from the state and from the federal government.

There are state taxes and federal taxes that we all pay on our, our gasoline purchases.

And that goes to fund the entire program, whether it's construction or operations.

And, you know, we've had a very big federal bill passed last year, which was really helpful to just getting projects moving, as well as a lot that we've done on the state level as well.

We've got one of the best transportation programs in the nation and everybody looks to us to say, how did you get that done?

So all of that being said, paying for a project as big as you are, 31 is still a lot of money, and so we can't expect it to all happen at one time.

It will be a process of doing segments of it and we want to make sure that it continues as a continuous process.

There's no stops and starts and that way and INDOT can fund it within their existing programs.

Yeah, John want to come your way as Laurie mentioned, people are coming through this this process of envisioning what you 31 might look like.

This changes how people function.

You mentioned the farmer has to get across the road of the the Amish community down in Fulton County, others.

So talk to you a little bit about maybe expectations for folks that that are in that that corridor and how they how they should weigh in on what's going forward?

Well, I think the best thing that can happen to the small towns, you know, in Fulton County, Marshall County and so forth, is to have a good freeway that they can get to to get get out in the world.

Once they have that, the world will come to them and it'll be it'll be helpful to their to their people that work to their companies or their businesses, and it'll allow those towns to grow.

I don't know if you've been over to Elkhart recently, but it's going boom and it's because it's got access to a whole lot of different places.

South Bend, Mishawaka are doing the same thing.

So having access is important.

Yeah, I think I think the most important thing, though, is to keep our our focus on where we want to go.

Be nice about it.

Try to be helpful to the folks at the state.

And remember, there's 50 other companies.

All right.

People all over the state that think their thing is more important than ours.

So we want to be helpful, not nasty.

Yep.

Laurie, as we wrap and folks who are interested in following what's going on, what best resources for them to plug in to, to keep up with what's happening in the corridor.

So we've got a coalition website is US31coalition.com and we try to keep everything updated there but new meetings that that is having as well as the propel 31 dot com those are the two main websites that I would watch and I do a lot of really good information out there.

Great.

John, Laurie, thank you so much for the conversation today.

I think of the proverb that people have shared that the best time to plant a tree is today, the second best time is 20 years ago.

Thank you both for the the tree you planted many years ago that have have led to some great progress on there.

And we're excited about what's we want to keep going.

Yep.

Got to finish.

Got to get it finished.

That's it for our show today.

Thank you for watching on WNIT or listening to our podcast.

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