Project targets removal of ramps at Eddy Street Bridge cloverleaf interchanges

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (WNDU) - The City of South Bend is ramping up for some ramp removal.

The project targets the cloverleaf interchanges on both sides of the Eddy Street Bridge.

Heading south on South Eddy Street you’ll find interstate style ramps at exits for Mishawaka Avenue and Lincolnway East.

Turns out, the need for such an expressway was short lived.

“The interchange was built in the 60′s. I think the completion of the project was around 1963, and it was not too soon after that, Studebaker closed its doors,” South Bend City Engineer Kara Boyles told 16 News Now. “What you see is a series of on and off ramps that really signals this is a highway and there’s just no need for a highway system like that in the middle of our city.”

Furthermore, it’s a highway system that occupies about three quarters of a mile of riverfront property.

“Some of the areas where the ramps currently are, and looking at how those areas could be developed,” said South Bend City Planner Tim Corcoran. “Missing middle housing, small scale apartments, mixed use, really taking advantage of the riverfront as an asset. You know, you can’t make more riverfront property right, but, in a way, like we’re recovering it from the damage of the past.”

Plans call for replacing the ramps with a network of residential streets that will reconnect neighborhoods the expressway divided decades ago.

“This highway infrastructure was sort of implemented over the top of where neighborhoods used to be and disconnected those neighborhoods from the riverfront and from each other,” Corcoran explained.

The city has received a $2.4 million federal “RAISE” grant that will pay for initial planning and engineering work. That part of the project alone will take up to three years to complete.

The price tag for the entire project is estimated to be in the $30 million range.

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