US 231 bypass opens, alleviates traffic problems

Jamie Teibel/ Summer Editor READY TO GO: A truck enters the new U.S. 231 ramp from Wiggins Street to North River Road. The U.S. 231 bypass was opened Thursday afternoon.

By Morgan Conklin
Summer Reporter

After six years of work and millions of dollars spent to fund the project, officials opened a new U.S. 231 bypass of downtown Lafayette Thursday afternoon.

"This will help Lafayette quite a bit in terms of getting traffic out of there (the city). This is what the city wanted," said Erik Seef, assistant engineer for the construction.

The construction widened South River Road into West Lafayette and added access from North River Road to the existing US 231 link.

Kenny Brooks, project manager for the Indiana Department of Transportation, said he doesn’t know why the city requested the rerouting of the road. "I have to assume that traffic volumes and ease of movement through town made it necessary."

"The project has taken years and years — at least 25-30 — to get to this stage, and to see it all come together is terrific," said Gordon Kingma, former president for the Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce.

Brooks said, "Now there won’t be big semis travelling through Third and Fourth streets downtown. That will help Lafayette tremendously getting through traffic and avoiding those semis."

Kingma said, "Essentially we now have a total bypass around both communities (West Lafayette and Lafayette) so someone from the southeast can get here much quicker and safer. This is a major plus to Purdue University and those who go to work and school there."

"When you couple a project like this with the fact that the city just completed a railroad relocation project and we have a park system underway along the Wabash all these things are going to change the city’s complexion for the good," he said.

Seef said that eventually U.S. 231 will completely bypass West Lafayette, but not for years in the future.

In order to do major construction such as this, Kingma said, "the city has to deal with the state of Indiana, the federal highway system and so on; that is why it is such a major project."

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