Tight $$ cancel Meridian project

A proposed re-vamping of Meridian Street through downtown Portland won’t be happening any time soon.

“The (U.S.) 27 project has been canceled because of budget restrictions,” Portland Mayor John Boggs said Wednesday afternoon. “It’s probably pushed back for two years, maybe three.”

Boggs said he had just learned of the Indiana Department of Transportation’s decision.

State gasoline tax revenues have been down sharply due to decreased travel as a result of the coronavirus pandemic shutdown.

INDOT’s initial plans, which were first unveiled last August and have come in for local criticism, involved reducing Meridian to two through lanes instead of four from Votaw to Water streets.

It also called for installing curb bump outs, parallel parking on one side of the street and reverse angle parking on the other side, as well as removing traffic lights at Walnut and High streets.

Boggs has said he would also like any such plan to include a reduction in the speed limit through the downtown.

“We want our downtown to be a center of commerce,” he said in May. “We don’t want it to be a race track.”

Boggs said Wednesday that INDOT’s planned repairs on the concrete bowstring truss bridge over the Salamonie River will go ahead despite the state’s budget crunch. While the paving can be deferred, maintenance of the bridge cannot.