INDOT to reroute State Road 28 around Tipton
TIPTON, Ind. (WISH) — State Road 28 brings about 10,000 or more vehicles through the city of Tipton every day.
A fair number of speeding semis use the highway, but a new deal will reroute the truck traffic and give the city of 5,275 residents control over its main road. Tipton is about an hour’s drive north of downtown Indianapolis.
During the day, getting across State Road 28 on foot in Tipton is nothing short of a challenge. Kendra Tragesser, who owns a shop on the highway, says the traffic is heavy, but the semi traffic is a little too much.
“The number of trucks that travel through here on the highway, it is probably not healthy for the downtown area,” Tragesser said.
The deal will be not be official until the Tipton City Council signs off. No date has been set on when the state will hand over control of the road.
Tipton, according to Mayor Tom Dolezal, is on the verge of re-inventing itself. He has a copy of the plans for the city sitting in his office. One of the blocking points is State Road 28, which runs east to west through the city, but the Indiana Department of Transportation will be giving the highway to the city and Tipton County in the council approves the deal.
The Democrat mayor said, “We will have more control over what the street looks like and street-width pedestrian areas and things like that.”
To move the existing traffic on State Road 28 around the city, the state will take over a county road and build a bypass.
For many communities, a bypass means a loss of traffic passing through, leading eventually a loss in revenue. But, the mayor believes, the bypass will save the downtown by improving its walkability. “We hope and don’t expect the car traffic will necessarily want to take the bypass, and, there again, I think the folks that come through Tipton want to stop at restaurants and shops and things like that will appreciate there is not all that truck traffic.”
“I would hope over time folks come to appreciate it, even the critics of it, that this was done to the improvement of the community,” Dolezal said.
The deal between the state and the county has been in the works for months. The state is also throwing in $9 million, which the county and the city will split.
The details were kept quiet until a recent county commissioners meeting. The agreement passed with one of the three commissioners voting against it.