Does your bureaucracy take this long too?

After running some errands in Niles, I decided to do my weekly shopping up north in Benton Harbor rather than in Mishawaka which is south. I also chose to take Old 31 up there just like I did when I was young.

When I first moved to the area, I lived with my grandparents. Their permanent home was in Niles but the family farm was up in Benton Harbor. During the summer we would live up in Benton Harbor coming back to Niles every Thursday to collect the mail, pay the bills, etc. This was back before the bypass was built so we mostly used US-31.


Old US-31

Back in the 70’s or even further back than that, a proposal was made to make a highway bypass from South Bend, Indiana to Benton Harbor, Michigan. This would “bypass” a segment of US-31 which was an old two-lane road that went through multiple communities. US-31 was heavily traveled with plenty of semi-trucks. With a built bypass, trucks would be able to use a highway all the way to Interstate 94 and the rest of US-31 that was built up to highway specs which lay on the northern side of I-94.

In the 70’s or 80’s the bypass was built up to Niles where it stayed for a long time. And then in the 90’s funding was freed up to build up to Berrien Springs. At that point, the US-31 designator was moved over to the bypass. The road that was formerly US-31 became a mad mess of names. It’s called SR-933, M-51, SR-139, and Old US-31 depending where you are. I just call it Old 31. The bypass, I call either 31 or “the bypass.”

The "new" US-31

Then just after I graduated, it seemed like they were finally going to hook up the bypass with I-94 and the rest of US-31. They stopped—two miles from the goal. Turns out some eco-nuts wanted to save some butterflies. Yup-butterflies. Now the money for the project has run out and who knows, it may be another two or three decades before the damn thing gets finished. This is why I hate my state government. Indiana has had their part of the bypass in operation for so long, they’ve probably completely repaved it 5 times over.

Since we can’t kill butterflies, they are thinking of moving the junction one exit to the south (yellow circle). If the state can ever get its act together, this could be a positive development for the family farm (circled in light blue). I wonder how much the value of that land would change.