The bypass and the eastern corridor: the St. Joseph Valley Parkway and Capital Avenue

1963-2013 · BYPASS US 20, US 31, AND STATE ROAD 331

The parkway: A southern bypass of the two cities was planned from the 1930s; construction began in 1958 as Bypass US 20. Its course reached Mishawaka's side of the metro in stages: the first section, from US 20 to Mayflower Road, was completed 19 September 1963; the road was extended past the SR 23 interchange in late summer 1965 and to US 31 on 15 December 1967, where for a generation it ended. The Bypass US 20 designation was later replaced by the US 31 designation — dated 1978 in the AARoads and highway-history record, 1982 in the roadfan chronology compiled from INDOT releases; both dates stand as printed. The Mishawaka half of the freeway came last and fast: the section from US 31 (Business US 31) to SR 19 opened 11 December 1991, and SR 19 to County Road 17 on 9 October 1992, completing Indiana's portion of the St. Joseph Valley Parkway. De Kever's city history gives the same event in the city's own terms: 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. On the Parkway's course along Mishawaka's south side, US 20 runs concurrently with SR 331 for 2.09 miles.

Capital Avenue: The city's eastern corridor grew in the bypass's other direction, toward the Toll Road. SR 331 once ran into downtown Mishawaka from the south and continued north to its end at US 20, at the intersection of McKinley Avenue and Main Street; the designation has since moved east, onto Capital Avenue. In 1982 the city got its long-sought direct access to the Indiana Toll Road with an interchange at Mile 83, three miles east of University Park Mall, on De Kever's account. The new Capital Avenue Bridge over the St. Joseph River opened in the fall of 1986, part of a Capital Avenue Expressway that initially connected Lincolnway East to Jefferson Boulevard — the roadfan compilation's quoted 1999 report dates the river section's building to 1987, a one-year difference printed here as it stands. North of the river the corridor was built toward the Toll Road in stages the same compilation records: twin bridges over the Toll Road in 1996, the road extended to Douglas Road in late 1997 and early 1998, the Douglas-to-Day Road portion open by 2003, construction from Day Road toward Jefferson Boulevard begun 30 June 2004, and the Day-to-McKinley stretch opened 9 December 2004, with the 331 designation applied to Capital Avenue's completed portions from the late 1990s. The expressway's completion, though, waited on its south end: De Kever records it finally completed in 2012-13, the section from Twelfth Street to the St. Joseph Valley Parkway opening in 2012 and the Capital Avenue railroad underpass the following year. The street it replaced had been, in the early twentieth century, a two-lane road on the edge of town running a mile from Lincolnway to Twelfth Street and continuing south as rural Elm Road; the finished expressway is an eight-mile divided highway, among the busiest thoroughfares in the county. In 2015 the city completed Beacon Parkway, a 4,000-foot street joining Fir Road and Capital Avenue to the Toll Road's Mishawaka/Granger interchange — the corridor's northern cap.

Sources:

1. AARoads wiki and Wikipedia, "St. Joseph Valley Parkway" and "U.S. Route 20 in Indiana" — the bypass planned from the 1930s, construction from 1958; the sections of 19 September 1963, late summer 1965 and 15 December 1967; the US 31 redesignation of 1978 (conflict printed in the entry); the openings of 11 December 1991 and 9 October 1992; the US 20/SR 331 concurrency of 2.09 miles.
2. Peter De Kever, Mishawaka: A History — the Toll Road interchange at Mile 83 in 1982; the Capital Avenue Bridge opened fall 1986, the expressway initially Lincolnway East to Jefferson Boulevard; the bypass extended to Elkhart in 1991 with the Bremen Highway interchange; the expressway completed 2012-13, Twelfth Street to the Parkway in 2012 and the railroad underpass in 2013; old Capital Avenue and Elm Road; Beacon Parkway, 2015.
3. Roadfan, "Routes in South Bend and Metro Northern Indiana," compiled from INDOT releases and WNDU reporting — SR 331's former downtown course to McKinley and Main; the 1982 redesignation date (conflict printed in the entry); the quoted 1999 report dating the river section to 1987 (conflict printed in the entry), the twin Toll Road bridges of 1996 and the Douglas Road extension of 1997-98; the Day Road stages of 2003-2004, with the Day-to-McKinley opening of 9 December 2004; the 331 designation applied from the late 1990s.