Potential upgrades to U.S. 30 will be discussed this evening by a group of local stakeholders. The Indiana Department of Transportation may consider upgrading the highway to freeway standards in the coming decade. Starke County has assembled a group of people who’d be impacted by the change, to come up with some recommendations for INDOT to consider.
That committee will meet for the first time today at 5:30 p.m. at the Starke County Economic Development Foundation office in Knox. The group is a mix of government officials, farmers, and business owners, including representatives from the Starke County Council and Commissioners, the Hamlet Town Council, and the Oregon-Davis School Board. Emergency responders from various agencies have also been invited to take part.
The committee’s goal will be to create a list of recommendations about the placement of overpasses and interchanges, among other issues. As a first step in the process, Starke County Highway Superintendent Rik Ritzler has been doing traffic counts on all the cross streets. Even before tonight’s meeting, economic development officials have already been calling for interchanges at Hamlet and State Road 23. However, any final decisions would be up to INDOT.
