Budget concerns for the State Road 37 project in Fishers could result in the scuttling of plans to provide an east-west roundabout on 141st Street and State Road 37, but nothing has been decided officially. The rising cost of construction is cited as the reason for possibly rethinking the project.
Minutes from a Jan. 31 Hamilton County Commissioners meeting question whether the roundabout at 141st Street and State Road 37 in Fishers will be constructed as originally planned, possibly in favor of a right-in/right-out design. According to those minutes, Commissioner Christine Altman said Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness recently asked her whether county officials are “committed on 141st Street or not.”
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“Altman’s impression was we were going to jettison 141st Street in terms of major improvements to avoid costs if we had to,” according to the minutes published on the Hamilton County website.
“The City of Fishers had a conversation with the Commissioner due to the projected cost increases to discuss contingencies related to the project if we are faced with overruns,” the city said when asked for comment.
What would 141st Street and State Road 37 look like if the roundabout is scuttled? Once again, according to the meeting minutes, Hamilton County Highway Director Bradley Davis told commissioners “there is the option to go to right-in, right-out at that location. That has not been 100 percent decided if that is a good thing to do from a logistic/traffic standpoint.”
Davis added that the 146th Street and 131st Street interchanges were designed with the assumption that there would be a single-lane roundabout overpass at State Road 37 at 141st Street, and added traffic to the other two adjacent routes would be impacted if the 141st Street connection to State Road 37 ended up as a right-in/right-out intersection.
“We are currently analyzing for traffic impacts and cost savings,” the city said on the possibility of switching 141st at State Road 37 to a right-in/right-out. “Work continues to move forward to acquire right-of-way and finalize designs for the planned interchange. If construction costs (labor, right-of-way land values, utility, etc.) continue to rise at the rate we’ve seen since 2015 when this was originally estimated, there is a possibility that we construct a RIRO (right-in/right-out).”
As plans stand now, 131st Street will be an overpass roundabout at State Road 37, and 135th Street will have right-in/right-out access to the highway.
The minutes also refer to some preliminary budget projections.
“The unofficial estimate on 135th is around $31 million,” according to the meeting minutes. “In 2020 to get 131st and 135th to letting is about $9.5 million; (Davis) listed $4.6 million as overrun as the county’s share. In 2021, 141st to construct a right-in, right-out is about $7.5 million. To construct a full interchange is about $25 million.”
Responding to the issue of funding, here is the statement from the City of Fishers:
“The project budget for SR37 was estimated in 2015. With 141st Street’s estimated timing of 2022 for implementation, we’re taking precautions to make sure the drastically rising costs of construction, utility relocations, right-of-way land value, etc. don’t impact the overall project. Less than half of the project has been bid with real cost valuation. After October 2020’s planned bidding of the other two intersections of 131st and 135th, we will have a much clearer idea of where we stand with the budget for overall SR37. At this point approximately 75 percent of the project will be bid with real cost valuations.”
In response to a question from Commissioner Altman, Davis said no additional cash is being requested for the State Road 37 project at this time, based on the meeting minutes.
The total Fishers State Road 37 budget was originally set at $124 million, with the City of Fishers and Hamilton County chipping in $12 million each and the State of Indiana providing $100 million.
First cost is the wrong way to compare projects. It would be like buying a car without knowing the fuel economy or safety of the thing, just its price to buy. Very short-sighted.
Present Value Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) is the best way to compare two or more choices. When comparing modern roundabouts to signals for a 20-year life cycle (the standard period), modern roundabouts usually cost less. Costs to compare include: first cost (design/land/construction), operation and maintenance (electricity, re-striping, upgrades, etc.), crash reduction (what’s your/your family’s safety worth?), daily delay (what’s your time worth?), daily fuel consumption (spend much on gas?), point source pollution (generated by stopped vehicles = health cost), area insurance rates (this costs more where it is less safe to drive). Each of these things, and others, can be estimated for any two choices and everyone near or using the project area will pay some portion of all these costs (and gain the benefits).