Originally posted August 8, 2020
Don’t stop believin‘ or should I simply say don’t stop. You can now journey down 131st Street without stopping at the Nickel Plate railroad crossing. The tracks are gone as are the stop signs. Better yet, the road is now open as well!
The city has rebuilt the crossing to where stop signs are no longer needed. Be aware that while you don’t have to stop, the crossing is slightly raised, so you will want to slow down.
You should also be aware that while this crossing has now been rebuilt, the construction is still happening around it, and the Nickel Plate Trail has not yet been converted to asphalt in that area. Hopefully that will happen sooner than expected, but we will have to wait and see.
We’ll also have to wait and see what the city does to connect the future trail to the side roads. If you’ve traveled down 131st near this location, you’ll notice a lack of sidewalks in a area that connect to the nearby main streets. Nor does it appear that it will be easy to add them.
Hopefully as the city works to built the trail, they will also build the connecting sidewalks. In the meantime, pedestrians and bikers in this stretch of 131st Street should remain extremely cautious because drivers are likely to be going a little faster now that they don’t have to stop.
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everybody wants a thrill
Update:
There has been a bit of discussion on this construction project on social media. Cars are finding that going over the concrete ‘crossing’ requires vehicles to slow way down. A number of vehicles are bottoming out as they go over this.
One member of the Fishers Chatter Facebook group raised this issue with the city. They received a response that the crossing will be adjusted. Here is their post from Fishers Chatter. (Because that is a private group, I blocked their name):
