The Bypass That Became a Highway: The Toll Road North of Town, and the US 20 That Never Left

1956 and after: the interstate edge, dated, and the town's un-bypassed main street

The toll road, dated whole: The Indiana Toll Road — officially the Indiana East–West Toll Road — is a controlled-access toll road running 156.28 miles east–west across northern Indiana from the Illinois state line to the Ohio state line, connecting the Chicago Skyway to the Ohio Turnpike. It is designated Interstate 90 for its entire length, and Interstate 80 joins it from Lake Station east to the Ohio line, a concurrency covering over 85 percent of the route. It was publicly financed and constructed in the 1950s and opened in stages, east to west, between August and November 1956: the first half, from the Ohio line to US 31 outside Roseland, north of South Bend, opened August 16, 1956; an extension to La Porte followed on September 5; the formal dedication ceremony was held September 17, 1956; and the highway was completed on November 15, 1956. Its final course was the northernmost of four planned alignments, and it lies within ten miles of the Michigan state line for the whole stretch between La Porte and the Ohio line.

Its geography against this township is a northern edge, not a crossing: The Toll Road's own construction record puts its beginnings in this county: construction began September 21, 1954, with groundbreaking ceremonies on the Marguerite Proud farm in St. Joseph County, and the first construction contract was let to the Rieth-Riley Construction Company of South Bend and Goshen for 7.4 miles of road through western St. Joseph and eastern La Porte counties, for completion by June 30, 1956. The road the contract built runs across the county's northern tier, north of New Carlisle and Olive Township. The published interchange list for St. Joseph County gives the county's Toll Road exits at South Bend — US 31 at mile 72 and State Road 933 at mile 77, with the State Road 331 interchange in Harris Township — and gives no interchange in Olive Township and none for New Carlisle. The town's own comprehensive-plan vision, written as a retrospective from 2041, treats a Toll Road connection as still a study item, not a fact: “The second potential infrastructure development under study is the I-80/90 Toll Road exit north of the Town.” As of November 2026, that remains the position the published record supports: the interstate passes this township by, to the north, with its nearest published interchanges at South Bend.

And the bypass that never happened to this town: The National Register nomination history for the New Carlisle Historic District states the other half of this section outright. Michigan Street, the town's main street, has been part of an improved thoroughfare since the town's platting in 1835 — first the Michigan Road, later the Lincoln Highway and finally US 20. When the federal highway network was laid out in the 1920s, the route through the top row of northern-Indiana counties, including parts of the old Michigan Road from South Bend to Michigan City, was designated US 20; many small towns along the new highway, such as Rolling Prairie about five miles west, were bypassed in the 1920s and 1930s, “but New Carlisle was spared, perhaps owing to the topographical difficulties any feasible bypass route would encounter.” The modern route description agrees, in the present tense: US 20 passes through Hudson Lake and New Carlisle before South Bend, and only at South Bend does it leave the surface road for the St. Joseph Valley Parkway freeway. As of November 2026 the published record therefore supports a plain statement: there is no US 20 bypass of New Carlisle; US 20 still runs on Michigan Street through the town, and the “bypass that became a highway” for this ground is the Toll Road of 1956, running north of it.

Sources:

1. Indiana Toll Road route and history summary: official name Indiana East–West Toll Road; 156.28 miles from the Illinois to the Ohio state line; Interstate 90 for the entire length and Interstate 80 from Lake Station east; counties including St. Joseph; publicly financed, opened in stages between August and November 1956, formal dedication September 17, 1956; northernmost of four planned alignments; within ten miles of the Michigan state line between La Porte and the Ohio line.
2. Indiana Toll Road exit record (AARoads Wiki): first half from the Ohio line to US 31 outside Roseland opened August 16, 1956; extension to La Porte September 5, 1956; highway completed November 15, 1956; St. Joseph County interchanges at US 31, South Bend (mile 72) and State Road 933 (mile 77), and State Road 331 in Harris Township.
3. Indiana Toll Road Commission, report of 1954–1955 (via Archive.org full text): construction begun September 21, 1954; groundbreaking on the Marguerite Proud farm in St. Joseph County; first contract to Rieth-Riley Construction Company for 7.4 miles through western St. Joseph and eastern La Porte counties, completion by June 30, 1956; scheduled completion November 15, 1956.
4. Whiting-Robertsdale Historical Society, “The Indiana Toll Road Changed Whiting-Robertsdale” (2024): legislature created the Indiana Toll Road Commission in 1951; groundbreaking September 21, 1954 about fifteen miles northwest of South Bend; four routes considered, the northernmost chosen; official dedication September 17, 1956 in South Bend; construction completed November 15, 1956.
5. Town of New Carlisle Comprehensive Plan Update, Chapter 3 — Vision Statement (Lehman & Lehman draft, hosted by the New Carlisle Public Library): the I-80/90 Toll Road exit north of the town described as a potential infrastructure development under study.
6. New Carlisle Historic District, National Register nomination history (via the district's published summary): Michigan Street part of an improved thoroughfare from the 1835 platting, successively Michigan Road, Lincoln Highway and US 20; US 20 designated in the 1920s over the South Bend-to-Michigan City Michigan Road segment; Rolling Prairie bypassed in the 1920s and 1930s but New Carlisle spared, perhaps for topographical reasons.
7. U.S. Route 20 in Indiana, route description (AARoads Wiki and the route's published summary): US 20 passing through Hudson Lake and New Carlisle before South Bend, and leaving the surface road at South Bend for the St. Joseph Valley Parkway.