Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb made a stop at the INDOT Plymouth Subdistrict building in Plymouth Wednesday afternoon to reveal plans in the 2019 NextLevel Connections Initiative. Those plans include internet connectivity, a trails project that connects the entire state, road improvements on U.S. 31, U.S. 20, U.S. 30 and I-69, international flights out of the Indianapolis Airport, a fourth water port in Lawrenceberg and South Shore double rail tracking projects.
With an agreement between the Indiana Finance Authority and the Indiana Toll Road Concession Company, about $1 billion from increased Toll Road fees on heavy vehicles with three, four and five axles will be used to fund all of the upgrades.
Governor Holcomb said about $100 million will be used to bring affordable high-speed fiber optic broadband access to areas of the state that currently experience a lack of that type of connectivity.
“Over the course of this month, our team will be working with local communities, entities and providers putting together a grant fund to make sure that we can get right at those underserved and unserved communities to make sure that our State of Indiana as a whole is connected,” said Governor Holcomb.
Among the many improvements noted, $190 million will be used for improvements to U.S. 20 and U.S. 30 in addition to new interchanges on U.S. 31. One of those interchanges will be designed for the State Road 10 intersection on U.S. 31 at Argos which Marshall County Commissioner Kevin Overmyer said will greatly impact that community in a positive way.
“You can’t grow a community until you know what’s going to happen with U.S. 31,” stated Overmyer. “I think with what has been rolled out here today, if everything comes to fruition, there will be an interchange. With what the Town of Argos is doing and with the Marshall County 4-H Fair Board putting up their multi-purpose building down there at the fairgrounds and with the new Manufacturing Center that went in down there in the Argos Industrial Park, I think it’s going to bring a lot of clarity. I think Argos will be able to move forward with a plan now.”
Overmyer also noted that the safety at that intersection will improve with the plan to construct an interchange at State Road 10 and U.S. 31.
