By CAMILA FERNANDEZ
WISH-TV | wishtv.com
Soaring construction costs are forcing an indefinite delay on a major State Road 37 project in Fishers. City officials say the 141st Street intersection is scheduled to be the last one of four changed into a raised roundabout, but now they aren’t sure when construction will resume.
“We’re certainly disappointed that this is the route that we have to take for State Road 37,” said Ashley Elrod, the community and public relations director for Fishers city government. “We were really looking forward to wrapping that project up.”
City leaders decided pausing the project was the best way possible to use taxpayer dollars.
Engineers estimated the cost of the 141st Street roundabout at $26.6 million, but the three bids the city received were for $49.4 million, $39.9 million and $32.9 million.
“At this point, just because of the market fluctuations, you know, we’re starting to see gas prices decrease, but certainly some other materials are continuing to increase,” Elrod said.
The SR 37 project was divided into five phases with a focus on 126th, 131st, 135th, 141st and 146th streets. The reconstruction project aims to replace all the intersections except 135th Street with raised roundabouts that SR 37 traffic will go under or use off-ramps to access the crossroads. The goal is to improve traffic flow by removing the stoplights, similar to what Carmel has done in creating Keystone Parkway. The crossing at 135th Street will become a right-turn-in, right-turn-out intersection. The raised roundabout at 126th Street has already opened.
Overall construction was slated to end in 2023.
“It’s really challenging for us to predict when that timeline might be for the completion of the 141st intersection, but know that it will continue to be a priority,” Elrod said.
Fishers resident Diane Girbert reacted to the delay. “It’s frustrating not to have an end date as someone who lives here because there’s just so much construction right now in Hamilton County, in all like the neighboring cities right now, and so we’re constantly having to find new routes to go on.”
According to city officials, only preliminary work – gas lines and electrical work – has been done on 141st. They say, with the completion of the other phases, drivers should not experience a significant impact because of the pause in construction.
“With the improvements of the other intersections combined with the changes in traffic flow, it shouldn’t be too much of an impact on motorists,” Elrod said.
According to Elrod, construction for 131st, 135th and 146th streets is slated to end in September.