Turbines planned for Indiana Toll Road

It looks like wheels won’t be the only things spinning round and round on the Indiana Toll Road this year.

Plans call for adding some wind turbines. “Not gigantic, these are small scale just wind turbines and so if you think of some of the large wind mills that are along I-65, not that,” said Bill McCall with the ITR Concession Company.

It’s part of ongoing efforts to reduce the carbon footprint of the private company that operates the toll road.

The turbines would be designed to catch the passing breeze, along with the draft created by passing traffic.

“Traffic generated winds the winds that would pass by as a truck or any other traffic goes past it would be able to capture that and convert it into energy,” McCall said.

McCall said that ITRC was working with the University of Notre Dame on the project.

Last year ITRC changed out 661 incandescent light bulbs with LED’s while all four of the new travel plazas that opened in 2016 had solar power panels.