McCORDSVILLE — McCordsville officials said they hope the results of a traffic study will help ensure the town’s thoroughfares are suited to handle traffic as housing and commercial projects continue to sprout up in the area.
The study, now underway, will give McCordsville officials a snapshot of what current traffic patterns are along major thoroughfares in the area. It will also give town officials a sense of what traffic could be like as far out as 2030, using projections on what the area’s population is expected to be in the future, said Ryan Crum, building and planning director for the town.
Those projections won’t be perfect, Crum said, but they will still provide a planning tool, giving town officials a sense of what commercial and residential developments are capable of handling increased traffic.
McCordsville is growing rapidly, both residentially and commercially, said town council member Max Meise.
In the last year alone, the town has broken ground on three major commercial projects, including Meijer, a senior living facility and the recently opened Hancock Wellness Center’s McCordsville branch.
That development will continue to arrive in town, Meise said, and the study will give town officials a sense of if certain roads will need improvements to handle the amount of traffic coming through.
It also will be a tool town officials can present to prospective businesses to prove they’re on top of current traffic conditions, he said.
Town officials will use the study to demonstrate that they’ve taken steps to accommodate traffic, which could sway some businesses – particularly large-scale commercial activity – to develop in the area, Meise said.
Town officials hired A&F Engineering, an Indianapolis-based company, to conduct all the research for the study, which cost $50,000.
Parts of the study, including traffic counts for certain thoroughfares throughout town, are complete, and town officials are reviewing the data, Crum said. The study is expected to be completed in coming weeks.
If data from the report reveals a significant need in a particular area, the town will react by implementing plans to accommodate traffic, whether it means widening a road or adding a traffic light to a certain intersection, said Barry Wood, also a member of the town council.
The traffic study won’t bring about immediate change to problematic intersections in town, especially where County Road 600W meets State Road 67, which causes traffic jams during daily rush hours, Meise said.
But it will show businesses and other prospective developers that the town is being proactive in planning ahead and managing its growth, he said.
