141st Street roundabout at SR 37 may fall victim to budget issues

Christine Altman
Scott Fadness

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 January 31st 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.”

“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 Web site.

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% decided if that is a good thing to do from a logistic/traffic standpoint.”

Davis added that the 146th 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 City of Fishers’ statement:

“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% 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.

6 thoughts on “141st Street roundabout at SR 37 may fall victim to budget issues

  1. Counting down the last couple years till we can leave Fishers. It’s horrendous at this point to be getting to Fishers high school from where we live once this construction starts. You have any main artery shut down for any reason it bottle necks everything else then throw in construction. Case in point. West side of 126 shut down soon and throw in a 45 day closure of 116th st close by and possibly an auto accident at one of the other points that shuts down a road we may as well leave for the summer. PS love teaching my child how to drive in the city

    1. Not putting in a roundabout at 141st street would be CATASTROPHIC for the businesses on east and west side of ST RD 37. For us to get there, we would have to go to 146th or 131st !! This roundabout is needed and WHEN will everyone have time and money to come back and fix 141st correctly !

  2. This would be a mistake. Reduce police, fire, medical response times. Hamper student and bus routes to local schools. Increase traffic in the other intersections. You would also need to look at widening Cumberland Road to 4 lanes to handle the traffic, also rehab Britton Park Rd/Trade Center Dr. This decision would hurt current businesses, and hamper new growth. There are a lot of citizens that depend on this intersection as much as those who depend on the others.

  3. What a horrible idea- it was determined to be the best option- the project was designed with all the pieces in place. If you are having money issues in the end, then you need to find the money elsewhere. Cut out the trail or other business abatements. The intersection at 141/37 is busy- and is a main crossing for many going over to the other high schools, sports fields, parks, etc. This pushes increased traffic onto the neighborhood streets which is NOT safe to the residents living there. We should not get the short end of the straw because we were the last intersection being built in the project. If you can’t afford it, then leave the light in and let us cross.

  4. Can’t pay for the roads yet it’s full speed ahead on the ill conceived and unwanted Nickel Plate Trail debacle. These people need to be removed from office immediately.

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