U.S. Route 24 in Indiana

U.S. Route 24 (US 24) in Indiana runs east from the Illinois state line to Huntington. At Huntington, US 24 turns northeast and runs to Fort Wayne; it then runs concurrently with Interstate 69 (I-69) and I-469 to bypass the city before entering Ohio at the state line east of Fort Wayne. The segment of US 24 between Logansport and Toledo, Ohio, is part of the Hoosier Heartland Industrial Corridor project of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act.

U.S. Route 24 marker

U.S. Route 24

US 24 highlighted in red
Route information
Maintained by INDOT
Length166.846 mi[1] (268.513 km)
Major junctions
West end US 24 / US 52 at Illinois state line
Major intersections US 41 / US 52 in Kentland
I-65 near Remington
US 421 in Monticello
US 35 near Logansport
US 31 near Peru
I-69 / US 33 near Fort Wayne
US 30 / US 33 / SR 930 in Fort Wayne
US 27 / SR 3 in Fort Wayne
I-69 / I-469 in Fort Wayne
I-469 / US 30 in New Haven
East end US 24 at Ohio state line
Location
CountryUnited States
StateIndiana
CountiesNewton, Jasper, White, Cass, Miami, Wabash, Huntington, Whitley, Allen
Highway system
  • Indiana State Highway System
SR 23 SR 25

Route description

Illinois to Logansport

This western section of US 24 is mostly rural two-lane. US 24 enters Indiana from Illinois concurrent with US 52. US 24 and US 52 head east toward Kentland, passing through an intersection with State Road 71 (SR 71). In Kentland, US 24 and US 52 have an intersection with US 41 where US 52 turns south. US 24 heads east from Kentland toward Remington, passing through a concurrency with SR 55. In Remington, US 24 starts a concurrency with US 231. US 24 and US 231 head east toward Wolcott, passing through an interchange with I-65. In Wolcott, US 231 heads south and US 24 heads east toward Reynolds. In Reynolds, US 24 has an intersection with SR 43 and starts a concurrency with US 421. US 24 and US 421 heads east toward Monticello. In Monticello, US 421 heads south with SR 39, US 24 now has a concurrency with SR 39. US 24 and SR 39 head east from Monticello. East of Monticello, SR 39 heads north, while US 24 heads east toward Logansport, passing through Idaville, Burnettsville, and Lake Cicott.[2]

Logansport to Fort Wayne

This section is a four-lane rural divided highway. US 24 and US 35 have a concurrency around Logansport and have an interchange with SR 25 and an intersection with SR 29. East of Logansport, US 35 heads southeast toward Kokomo. US 24 heads east toward Peru, passing through an interchange with US 31. On the north side of Peru, US 24 has an intersection with SR 19. From Peru, US 24 heads east toward Wabash, passing through an intersection with SR 115. In Wabash, US 24 has intersections with SR 15 and SR 13. US 24 then heads toward Huntington passing through an intersection with SR 524 and a short concurrency with SR 105. On the west side of Huntington, US 24 begins a concurrency with SR 9. US 24 and SR 9 pass through an intersection with US 224/SR 5. North of Huntington, SR 9 heads north and US 24 heads northeast toward Fort Wayne. On the way to Fort Wayne, US 24 passes through an intersection with SR 114. Then, on the west side of Fort Wayne, US 24 enters onto northbound I-69.[3]

Fort Wayne to Ohio

Exit sign for US 24 on southbound I-469 in New Haven

This section of US 24 is mostly freeway and includes overlaps with two Interstate Highways. US 24 merges onto I-69 heading north at that route's exit 302. US 24 (along with US 30) then leaves I-69 at exit 315 to head east then south along I-469. US 24 runs concurrently with I-469 until the east side of New Haven, passing through interchanges with Maplecrest Read and SR 37 along its path. US 24 leaves I-469 at exit 21 in New Haven, a conventional partial cloverleaf interchange, but, from there, heads northeast toward Ohio as a four-lane mostly Interstate standard rural freeway. After leaving I-469, the US 24 freeway has a substandard (short, low-speed Y-ramps of a right-in/right-out design) interchange with Bruick Road and Old US 24 in rural Allen County. Continuing past a standard diamond interchange at Webster Road, it follows a subsequent interchange with SR 101 in Woodburn. Beyond the SR 101 junction, US 24 enters Ohio, where the freeway ends but the route continues on in the Buckeye State as a four-lane divided rural arterial highway (though full access-control extends past the state line about another two miles [3.2 km]).[4]

History

Logansport to Fort Wayne

The original route of US 24 went through the city of Logansport, which then was a two-lane undivided rural highway north of the present four-lane highway from Logansport to a point near New Waverly. From there, the original facility ran south of today's four-lane roadway, through Peru and roughly paralleling the old Wabash Railroad (now Norfolk Southern Railway) mainline tracks into the city of Wabash. Between that city and the Wabash County town of Largo, the old road still is south of the present alignment, but, from there to the west side of Huntington (at SR 9), the present four-lane facility replaced the original two-lane road. US 24 originally went through the city of Huntington but now is bypassed to the west and north by the modern alignment. From east of Huntington to Fort Wayne, the four-lane roadway was built over the two-lane highway, then known as Upper Huntington Road.

Fort Wayne to New Haven

Before US 24 was rerouted onto I-69 and I-469, US 24 passed through both Fort Wayne and its eastern suburb, New Haven. It entered the metropolitan area concurrent with SR 37 on Upper Huntington Road (now Jefferson Boulevard) and picked up another concurrency with former SR 14 at Illinois Road on the west side of the city. This was also the point where Upper Huntington Road transitioned to being Jefferson Boulevard. US 24 and the state roads crossed the St. Marys River in Swinney Park then became split through downtown Fort Wayne on a one-way pair of streets, with Jefferson Boulevard and then Maumee Avenue carrying eastbound traffic and Washington Boulevard handling westbound travel. East of downtown, SR 37 left the one-way pair of Maumee and Washington at Anthony Boulevard, departing to the north. The one-way pair merged onto Washington Blvd just east of Memorial Park, near Edsall Avenue on the east side.

Just east of Fort Wayne, US 24 had an interchange with the Bueter Road alignment of the original 1953 US 30 "Bypass" (later renamed Coliseum Boulevard). From that tight cloverleaf interchange to the east, US 24 and SR 14 were concurrent with US 30 (now SR 930) and they then bridged the Nickel Plate Railroad (now Norfolk Southern Railway) mainline before merging onto New Haven Avenue, heading due east toward that suburb. Then US 24 and SR 14 headed into downtown New Haven, with US 30 splitting off to the south to bypass central New Haven. Just beyond that split, US 24 turned north onto Broadway Street, with SR 14 continuing due east along Dawkins Road to Ohio. On Broadway, US 24 crossed the Nickel Plate railroad mainline at-grade and then curved slightly north-northwest through downtown New Haven before turning east onto Rose Avenue which led out of town (and past the point which later would become the I-469 interchange) as the old alignment which was later replaced by the modern freeway.

In the early 1980s, US 24 was rerouted out of downtown Fort Wayne, following I-69 north to US 30/Coliseum Boulevard (now SR 930), and then following Coliseum Boulevard around the northern and eastern sides of the city to the cloverleaf interchange at Washington Boulevard. When the southeastern portions of I-469 opened to traffic in 1989, US 24 was rerouted again, this time onto I-69 south, then I-469 at I-69's (then exit 96, now exit 296) to the current interchange with US 24 east of New Haven. This resulted in a "doubling back" to the south-southwest from the Jefferson Boulevard interchange (then exit 101, now exit 301) along I-69 to reach I-469's south junction with I-69. Many savvy through travelers on US 24 simply left that route in Huntington County and turned east onto County Road 900 (CR 900) North at Roanoke, which becomes Lafayette Center Road at the Allen County line), and which about six miles (9.7 km) after leaving US 24 deposited them directly onto eastbound I-469 and (at the time) US 24 at the I-69 interchange. Though this deviation was along a two-lane road, it saved them several miles of unnecessary out-of-the-way travel along the officially shielded route.

After the original two-lane alignment east of New Haven along the Maumee River was bypassed by the present four-lane freeway in 2012, US 24 was again officially rerouted to its present posted alignment, using the northern loop of I-469, via I-69 north. Many through travelers, however, still use CR 900 South/Lafayette Center Road (both now widened and improved) to I-469 east and north route as it remains far shorter and more direct than the officially designated US 24 northern bypass of the Summit City and its eastern suburb.

2008–2012 upgrades

Fort to Port was first brought up in a meeting by Indiana State Representative Mitch Harper, in 1989. The project went from New Haven, to Toledo, Ohio. It was at this meeting the project name "Fort to Port" was born. The most complex and expensive portion of the Indiana segment was to be reconstructing the partial cloverleaf interchange with I-469 in New Haven.

(December 2008) Completed section of US 24 Fort-to-Port Freeway in eastern Indiana. This segment opened to traffic on October 29, 2009.

In November 2007, Indiana announced it would reduce costs by changing its segment to be an expressway with at-grade intersections at Bruick Road, Webster Road, and SR 101, instead of a freeway section with interchanges and overpasses. The only overpasses would be two narrow 12-foot-wide (3.7 m) overpasses for non-motorized traffic (Amish buggies) to cross US 24. Also, the interchange of I-469 and US 24 would remain as is with traffic signals at the US 24 ramp terminals. The cost savings without interchanges would be approximately $75 million–80 million (equivalent to $95.8 million102 million in 2021[5]). Right-of-way would be purchased for future interchanges. This change has been unpopular due to safety concerns with the heavy truck traffic on the corridor. The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) claimed that the current traffic on US 24 does not justify interchanges, even though the 2005 final environmental impact study (EIS) states that it does.

Responding to widespread public outcry over the scaled-back design, Governor Mitch Daniels announced on December 12, 2007, that US 24 would be built as a freeway initially from Bruick Road to the Ohio state line, with interchanges at SR 101 and Webster Road.[6] The intersection with Bruick Road was to have initially been an at-grade crossing, but INDOT announced in August 2009 that a grade-separated interchange was to be built here as well.[7] Indiana's entire 13.5-mile (21.7 km) segment of US 24 was completed as a freeway. The interchange with I-469, however, was unchanged and not free-flowing in all traffic movements.

Upon completion, ownership of the existing US 24 was transferred to Allen County and became a frontage road east of Bruick Road, providing access to the BFGoodrich tire plant and adjacent homes and farmland. Indiana financed construction through the Major Moves program and will be reimbursed when federal highway funds become available. Sections of the two-lane road that have been bypassed by the freeway are now locally signed as "Old US 24".

Part of the new US 24 "Fort to Port" freeway in Eastern Indiana in 2018

Governor Daniels and INDOT held the groundbreaking ceremony for the Indiana section on April 30, 2008. By December 2008, crews had completed construction on two miles (3.2 km) of the freeway from the Ohio state line to just east of the SR 101 interchange. On October 29, 2009, Governor Daniels and Ohio Governor Ted Strickland held a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Indiana–Ohio state line opening the new US 24 highway from SR 101 near Woodburn to State Route 424 near Defiance, Ohio.[8] The project was designated completed, and the final segment opened on November 4, 2012.[9]

Interchange with I-469

In the original plans, INDOT intended to upgrade the I-469/US 24 interchange to allow free-flowing movements between the two highways as documented in the Fort-to-Port final EIS published in 2005. This included building a 2,200-foot (670 m) flyover ramp from eastbound US 24 to southbound I-469. Five years later, no work had been performed on this interchange.

In May 2017, INDOT announced that a modification to the original plan was in process. The long proposed flyover was being replaced with two significantly shorter bridges. Furthermore, the interchange was going to be upgraded in two phases. The initial phase mostly entailed the eastern half of the intersection, specifically both northbound I-469 to eastbound US 24 and westbound US 24 to northbound I-469 were converted to free-flowing movements.[10] This first phase was fully opened to traffic in fall 2020.[11] After a change in land use, phase 2 went through another redesign in March 2022 and a decision was made to completely replace the flyovers with a conventional loop ramp.[12] Construction contract should be awarded in January 2024[13] with construction to begin that spring.

Major intersections

CountyLocationmi[1]kmExitDestinationsNotes
NewtonJefferson Township0.0000.000

US 24 west / US 52 west Sheldon, Watseka
Continuation into Illinois
1.8152.921
SR 71 south Raub
Northern terminus of SR 71
Kentland4.6167.429
US 41 / US 52 east Terre Haute, Lafayette, Hammond
Eastern end of US 52 concurrency
Goodland10.56617.004
SR 55 south Fowler
Western end of SR 55 concurrency
11.06517.807
SR 55 north Crown Point
Eastern end of SR 55 concurrecny
JasperRemington19.53731.442
US 231 north Rensselaer
Western end of US 231 concurrency
21.236–
21.405
34.176–
34.448
I-65 Indianapolis, Gary, Chicago
WhiteWolcott26.27042.277
US 231 south Lafayette
Eastern end of US 231 concurrency
Reynolds35.09856.485

US 421 north / SR 43 south Michigan City, Lafayette
Western end of US 421 concurrency; northern terminus of SR 43
Monticello41.01266.002

US 421 south / SR 39 south Delphi, Frankfort, Indianapolis
Eastern end of US 421 concurrency; western end of SR 39 concurrency
Union Township42.27668.037
SR 39 north Buffalo
Eastern end of SR 39 concurrency
CassLogansport60.84097.912


US 35 north / US 24 Bus. east La Porte, Logansport
Western end of US 35 concurrency; western end of Bus. US 24
62.182100.072Old State Road 25Interchange
62.982101.360

SR 25 south / SR 29 south Lafayette, Delphi
Split diamond interchange, together with interchange for SR  25 north; western end of SR 25 concurrency; northern terminus of SR 29
63.257101.802

SR 25 north / SR 329 south
Split diamond interchange, together with interchange for SR  25 south; eastern end of SR 25 concurrency; northern terminus of SR 329
67.171108.101
US 35 south Kokomo
Eastern end of US 35 concurrency
Miami Township74.444119.806

US 24 Bus. west / Logansport Road
Eastern end of Bus. US 24
MiamiPeru Township77.451124.645 US 31 Indianapolis, Kokomo, Plymouth, South Bend
Peru81.218130.708 SR 19 Converse, Akron
WabashNoble Township92.028148.105
SR 115 north
Southern terminus of SR 115
Wabash94.018151.307 SR 15 Marion, Wabash, Warsaw
96.464155.244 SR 13 Noblesville, Wabash, North Manchester
Lagro98.553158.606
SR 524 south Lagro
Western terminus of SR 524
HuntingtonDallas Township106.531171.445
SR 105 north South Whitley
Western end of SR 105 concurrency
Andrews107.659173.260
SR 105 south Banquo
Eastern end of SR 105 concurrency
Huntington111.700179.764
SR 9 south Marion, Anderson
Southern end of SR 9 concurrency
113.525182.701
US 224 east / SR 5 Huntington, Decatur, Warren
Western terminus of US 224
Huntington Township115.239185.459
SR 9 north Columbia City
Northern end of SR 9 concurrency
116.424187.366Old US 24Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
HuntingtonWhitley
county line
JacksonJefferson
township line
126.817204.092
SR 114 west North Manchester
Eastern terminus of SR 114
AllenFort Wayne131.151–
132.316
211.067–
212.942


I-69 south / US 33 south / Jefferson Boulevard Indianapolis, Fort Wayne International Airport
Western end of I-69 / US 33 concurrency
135.553218.151305
SR 14 west / Illinois Road
Signed as exits 305A (east) and 305B (west)
139.509224.518309

US 30 west / US 33 north

SR 930 east / Goshen Road
Eastern end of US 33 concurrency; western end of US 30 concurrency; signed as exits 309A (east) and 309B (west / north); western end of SR 930
141.290227.384311

US 27 south / SR 3 north (Lima Road)
Signed as exits 311A (south) and 311B (north); northern terminus of US 27; southern terminus of the northern section of SR 3
142.592229.480312Coldwater RoadSigned as exits 312A (south) and 312B (north)
145.335233.894315
31

I-69 north Lansing, MI

I-469 east
Auburn Road
Eastern end of I-69 concurrency; west end of I-469 concurrency; westbound exit only to Auburn Road; exit 315 on I-69 and exit 31 on I-469
St. Joseph Township147.590237.52329Maplecrest RoadSigned as exits 29A (north) and 29B (south) eastbound
Fort Wayne151.582243.94825
SR 37 north / Maysville Road Fort Wayne
Southern end of the northern segment of SR 37
Jefferson Township155.283249.904

I-469 south / US 30 east New Haven, Fort Wayne International Airport
Eastern end of I-469 / US 30 concurrency
Milan Township157.348253.227Bruick RoadInterchange (sub-Interstate standards)
158.472255.036Webster RoadInterchange
Maumee Township164.239264.317 SR 101 WoodburnInterchange
166.846268.513
US 24 east Defiance, Napoleon, Toledo
Continuation into Ohio
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi

See also

References

  1. Indiana Department of Transportation (July 2016). Reference Post Book (PDF). Indianapolis: Indiana Department of Transportation. US 24, I 69, I 469. Retrieved September 23, 2017.
  2. Google (April 22, 2011). "Overview Map of the Western Segment of US 24" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved April 22, 2011.
  3. Google (April 22, 2011). "Overview Map of the Middle Segment of US 24" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved April 22, 2011.
  4. Google (November 19, 2013). "Overview Map of the Eastern Segment of US 24" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved November 19, 2013.
  5. Johnston, Louis; Williamson, Samuel H. (2023). "What Was the U.S. GDP Then?". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved January 1, 2023. United States Gross Domestic Product deflator figures follow the Measuring Worth series.
  6. Indiana Department of Transportation (December 12, 2007). "Interchanges to Be Built on Fort to Port Project" (Press release). Indiana Department of Transportation. Archived from the original on December 22, 2007.
  7. Indiana Department of Transportation (August 7, 2009). "US 24 Proposed Pedestrian Bridge Upgraded to Interchange and Design Work Pending for SR 14 Adjacent to Inverness Pond" (Press release). Indiana Department of Transportation. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015.
  8. Sade, Vivian (November 15, 2012). "Fort to Port finally open for business". The Journal Gazette. Fort Wayne. OCLC 7368210. Retrieved November 15, 2012.
  9. Indiana Department of Transportation. "US 24 Fort to Port". Indiana Department of Transportation. Retrieved May 11, 2017.
  10. Clark, Rickie (May 10, 2017). "I-469 at US 24 Interchange Modification" (PDF). Indiana Department of Transportation.
  11. "Additional Information Document No. 2 - Interchange Modification / I-469 at US 24" (PDF). Indiana Department of Transportation. November 12, 2021. p. 2. Phase I, the east side of the intersection, is fully constructed and was opened to traffic in Fall of 2020 (Des. 1383675)
  12. "I-469/US 24 Interchange Modification Phase 2". Indiana Department of Transportation. July 15, 2021. Retrieved October 24, 2023.
  13. "18-Month Construction Letting List (All Projects)". Indiana Department of Transportation. October 15, 2023.
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