The bypass question: the St. Joseph Valley Parkway at the city's edge

1991–1998 · THE FREEWAY THAT DOES NOT ENTER THE CITY

The question has an exact answer, and it is a boundary: The St. Joseph Valley Parkway — the freeway that carries US 20 across the metro's south side and US 31 down its west — does not run through Mishawaka. On the parkway's eastward course it runs, in the AARoads guide's words, "through agricultural land on the far southern fringes of the suburb of Mishawaka," and the official junction record places its Mishawaka-side mileage in Penn Township: the 2.09-mile concurrency of US 20 with SR 331 on the city's south side is listed by the INDOT Reference Post Book in Penn Township, not in the city. Whether any segment of the freeway lies inside Mishawaka's corporate limits is not established in the record reached, and the file prints the question at that strength rather than drawing the line itself: what the record establishes is a freeway on the city's southern fringe, in the township, close enough that the city's own commissioned history counts it as Mishawaka's access — "in 1991 the US 20 bypass, which for many years had ended at US 31 on the south side of South Bend, was extended to Elkhart, and a Bremen Highway interchange gave Mishawakans access to the new road." The two interchanges that serve the city are the corridor's own: Elm Road — the Bremen Highway, the south leg of SR 331 — and Capital Avenue, SR 331's north leg, the subject of the next entry. The Mishawaka half of the freeway opened in the stages this build's Transit section carries whole: US 31 (Business US 31) to SR 19 on 11 December 1991, SR 19 to County Road 17 on 9 October 1992, completing Indiana's portion; US 20's downtown decommissioning followed in 1998 on the highway record. The parkway's earlier course — the Bypass US 20 years west of US 31, its renumbering, and its construction from 1958 — is South Bend ground and this build's Transit and South Bend Corridors records carry it; what is Mishawaka's is the fringe, the two interchanges, and the fact that the through traffic of two federal highways now passes the city without entering it.

Sources:

1. AARoads, St. Joseph Valley Parkway guide — the freeway's course through the far southern fringes of Mishawaka; the Elm Road/SR 331 interchange serving the city.
2. INDOT Reference Post Book (July 2016), as carried in the State Road 331 record — the US 20/SR 331 concurrency of 2.09 miles (peak AADT 36,040 on the concurrency, per the US 20 record) listed in Penn Township.
3. Peter J. De Kever, Mishawaka: A History (city-commissioned), as carried in this build's Transit section — the 1991 extension to Elkhart and the Bremen Highway interchange as Mishawaka's access.
4. This build's Transit section — the openings of 11 December 1991 and 9 October 1992 and the parkway's construction chronology, conformed here and carried whole there.