Vehicles on Mt. Comfort Road in McCordsville wait at a traffic light at Broadway in 2019. Thanks to federal funds and a regional planning organization, extensive improvements are coming to the intersection.
Daily Reporter file photo
McCORDSVILLE — A small town is getting big dollars to improve two intersections that are getting busier as the area grows.
The Indianapolis Metropolitan Planning Organization awarded McCordsville over $5.3 million in federal funds to help traffic flow better at Mt. Comfort Road’s crossings with Broadway and County Road 600N. Funding will be available in 2025.
Ryan Crum, McCordsville’s assistant town manager of planning and development, estimates it’s the largest grant the town has received in its history.
Among the improvements slated for Mt. Comfort Road’s intersection with Broadway is widening Mt. Comfort Road between Second Street and County Road 800N and taking it from a two-lane road to two lanes in each direction. All legs of the intersection will also have right- and left-turn lanes.
“The point of the largest congestion in McCordsville occurs right there,” Crum said.
Mt. Comfort Road and Broadway are the town’s two main thoroughfares, and railroad tracks cross Mt. Comfort Road just north of Broadway.
“What we’re doing with this is we are reducing the impacts of the presence of those trains,” Crum said, adding that the improvements will help stacked traffic clear much quicker after trains make their way through. “…This will be a vast improvement and a needed improvement that we coulnd’t be more excited about.”
He said the improvements won’t completely remedy the traffic jams at the intersection, but serve as an effective interim benefit until a permanent solution can be achieved. For that, the town wants to take Mt. Comfort Road under the railroad tracks, but it’ll have to find a way to fund the estimated $40 million cost.
The improvements will require right-of-way acquisition, Crum continued, adding that process will begin after more in-depth design work.
“There will be some front yards impacted, for certain,” Crum said. “Whether there’ll be impacts to structures or not remains to be seen.”
Turn-lane improvements are slated for Mt. Comfort Road’s intersection with County Road 600N. On Mt. Comfort Road’s southbound lane approaching the intersection, the left-turn lane will extend farther down the road to allow for more vehicle stacking. County Road 600N’s eastbound lane will get a dedicated left-turn lane. Mt. Comfort Road’s northbound lane will get a right-turn lane and extended stacking for its existing left-turn lane. County Road 600N’s westbound lane will get left- and right-turn lanes.
“The idea there is to essentially improve the performance of that intersection and reduce some of the queuing that’s occurring there today,” Crum said. “It will improve the efficiency and functionality of the intersection and get traffic moving through that light a little bit quicker because there’ll be less queuing and less stacking on the way to the intersection.”
The total cost of the projects is $6,593,623, with 80% – $5,363,069 – of it coming from federal funding through the Indianapolis Metropolitan Planning Organization.
As part of an annual funding process, McCordsville planners submitted projects for consideration by the IMPO, which is responsible for planning and programming federal transportation funds in the eight-county Central Indiana region. Projects are judged based on such criteria as impacts to air quality, improvements to congestion, safety, pavement quality and more.
Anna Gremling, executive director of the IMPO, said in a news release that it’s a very competitive process, and this year drew 72 proposed projects.
“McCordsville’s two projects were among 30 that rose to the top,” Gremling said. “Building and maintaining infrastructure is one of local governments’ biggest challenges, and one of the ways they make a critical contribution to regional and state economies.”
McCordsville was one of 15 communities and agencies in the region selected to receive federal funds.
Crum said he and his colleagues with the town were filled with relief and excitement when they learned of the award. He noted that while McCordsville is expanding quickly, the town is limited on funds for extensive infrastructure projects.
“It’s always tight for a small town that’s growing as fast as ours,” he said.
Tom Strayer, president of McCordsville Town Council, echoed that gratitude in the news release.
“It allows us to make critical improvements to our primary intersection, which we would have otherwise not been able to do,” he said.
