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Mooresville hopes to ban semi traffic through town

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The town of Mooresville is working to ban semi trucks that travel through town.

At a public meeting on Wednesday, the town council introduced the plan to residents.

It would be a ban on large trucks like semis on State Road 267 through Mooresville, beginning at the Morgan County line. Local deliveries would still be allowed.

The town already had an agreement from INDOT, and this plan should be completed by the end of 2015, according to town council member Tony Langley.

Paul Ford owns Ralph and Ava’s Cafe along Main Street in Mooresville. He is glad to hear semi trucks might soon be a thing of the past outside his restaurant.

“It really clogs up traffic here in the downtown area,” he said. “It leaves little room for people to park because semis have to get through.”

He said even on a nice day like Thursday, no one is sitting outside.

“I hope that my outdoor seating will improve because people won’t be afraid of being hit by a semi as they come around the corner,” Ford said.

Trucks use State Route 267 going from I-70 to State Route 67 en route to Bloomington.

Ford sees 20 to 30 of those trucks every day from his front window.

“A lot of times they shortcut and travel right through Mooresville and it causes a problem for our downtown businesses,” Langley said.

The state would relinquish control of the road to the town and the road would be renamed. He said INDOT has been cooperative and they hope to have the agreement completed by the end of the year.

“Everybody had the same goal in mind,” Langley said, “Everybody wants this to be a safer road to get from I-70 to State Road 67.”

Ford said other residents and business owners he knows are also in favor of the plan.

“It’s been as far as I can tell very positive,” he said.

Mooresville’s council has been talking with INDOT engineers for more than a year, but INDOT wanted to wait until the Ameriplex Parkway route was open for those truck drivers to have an alternate route.

Tony Langley said construction on that is nearly completed and that Hendricks County is looking to make a similar ban on its stretch of State Road 267.