U.S. Route 33 (US 33) is part of the
United States Numbered Highway System
The United States Numbered Highway System (often called U.S. Routes or U.S. Highways) is an integrated network of roads and highways numbered within a nationwide grid in the contiguous United States. As the designation and numbering of these h ...
that runs from
Richmond, Virginia, to
Elkhart of the US state of
Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
. In Indiana, it is a
state road that enters the state at the Ohio state line between
Willshire, Ohio
Willshire is a village in Van Wert County, Ohio, United States. The population was 397 at the 2010 census. It is included within the Van Wert, Ohio Micropolitan Statistical Area.
Willshire is located from the Ohio/Indiana State line. St. Ma ...
, and
Pleasant Mills, Indiana. The of US 33 that lie within Indiana serve as a major conduit. All of the highway is listed on the
National Highway System. Various sections are rural two-lane highway, urbanized four-lane divided expressway and the
Lincoln Highway
The Lincoln Highway is the first transcontinental highway in the United States and one of the first highways designed expressly for automobiles. Conceived in 1912 by Indiana entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, and formally dedicated October 31, 1913 ...
. The northernmost community along the highway is Elkhart. The highway ends at an interchange in southern Elkhart after serving the northeastern region of Indiana. US 33 passes through farm fields and urban areas.
US 33 was first designated as a U.S. Highway in 1937. A section of the highway originally served as part of the Lincoln Highway, a connection between
Fort Wayne and
South Bend
South Bend is a city in and the county seat of St. Joseph County, Indiana, on the St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total of 103,453 residents and is the fourt ...
. US 41 replaced some the original State Road 2 (SR 2) designation of the highway which dated back to the formation of the Indiana State Road system. SR 2 ran from Illinois state line through South Bend to Elkhart and ended at the Ohio state line. Realignments and construction projects have expanded the highway to four lanes.
Route description
US 33 enters Indiana from Ohio heading northwest towards
Decatur, as a rural two-lane highway, passing through farmland with a few houses. Along the way passing through a short
concurrency with
State Road 101 (SR 101), in
Pleasant Mills. The highway enters
Decatur by curving due west. The road begins a concurrency with
US 27, heading due north as a four-lane highway with a center turn lane. The concurrency passes through mostly commercial before heading into downtown Decatur. In downtown Decatur the two routes have an intersection with
US 224, this is the southern end of the US 224 concurrency. The three routes head north having an intersection at the northern end of the US 224 concurrency, US 224 turns due west. After the concurrency with US 224, US 27 and US 33 head north and then northwest towards
Fort Wayne and the road becomes a four-lane divided highway. On the south side of Fort Wayne is a
diamond interchange
A diamond interchange is a common type of road junction, used where a controlled-access highway crosses a minor road.
Design
The freeway itself is grade-separated from the minor road, one crossing the other over a bridge. Approaching the ...
with
Interstate 469
Interstate 469 (I-469) is an Interstate Highway in northeastern Indiana. It is an auxiliary route of parent I-69 that also carries portions of US Highway 24 (US 24), US 30, and US 33 around the urban parts of Fort W ...
(I-469), this interchange is the north end of the concurrency with US 27.
US 33 heads west on I-469, which is concurrent with
US 24. All three routes have an interchange with the northern terminus of the southern section of
SR 1; this interchange has access to the
Fort Wayne International Airport
Fort Wayne International Airport is eight miles southwest of Fort Wayne, in Allen County, Indiana, United States. It is owned by the Fort Wayne-Allen County Airport Authority.
The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015 ...
. After the interchange at SR 1, the interstate passes south of the airport. West of the airport is the terminus of I-469, both US 24 and US 33 turns north onto
I-69
Interstate 69 (I-69) is an Interstate Highway in the United States currently consisting of 10 unconnected segments with an original continuous segment from Indianapolis, Indiana, northeast to the Canadian border in Port Huron, Michigan, at ...
, passing through rural areas with farmland as a four-lane interstate. Then, the interstate has an interchange with Airport Expressway/Lower Huntington Road. North of the Airport Expressway interchange, the roadway becomes a six-lane interstate, passing through urban areas with a mix of commercial and industrial properties. The highway enters the southwest side of Fort Wayne and US 24 leaves the concurrency, heading southwest. After the interchange with US 24, the interstate has an interchange with the eastern terminus
SR 14, on the west side of Fort Wayne. After the interchange with SR 14, the highway turn northeast curving around Fort Wayne. On the northwest side of Fort Wayne, US 33 leaves I-69 heading northwest concurrent with
US 30. The concurrency is a six-lane expressway, passing through woodlands with some commercial properties. Shortly after the concurrency with US 30 begins, it ends, with US 33 heading north and US 30 heading west. The highway becomes a four-lane highway with a center turn lane as it begins to leave Fort Wayne, passing through a mix of commercial and residential areas.
The roadway leaves Fort Wayne heading northwest as a two-lane mainly rural highway, passing through farmland with some woods. In
Churubusco, the route has a
traffic light
Traffic lights, traffic signals, or stoplights – known also as robots in South Africa are signalling devices positioned at road intersections, pedestrian crossings, and other locations in order to control flows of traffic.
Traffic light ...
with
SR 205. Then the road heads towards
Ligonier, passing through a four-stop intersection with
SR 9 in
Merriam. Then in
Wolf Lake
''Wolf Lake'' is an American supernatural drama television series that originally aired on CBS from September 19 to October 24, 2001. Nine episodes were produced, but only five aired before the series was canceled by CBS. The full series, inclu ...
the road has an intersection with
SR 109 at the main intersection in town. Then south of Ligonier the road passes through
Kimmell and the route begins a concurrency with
SR 5. The concurrency with SR 5 ends at the intersection with
US 6 in Ligonier. Both US 6 and US 33 head west away from Ligonier as a two-lane highway passing through farmland with some houses, for . Then US 33 turns north, now concurrent with
SR 13, the concurrency with SR 13 last for , with SR 13 turning east and US 33 turning northwest. Now the road heads towards
Goshen passing through
Benton on the way.
The road enters Goshen on the southeast side of the city as a two-lane highway with a center turn lane, passing commercial properties. As the road gets closer to downtown Goshen the road narrows to a two-lane street without turn lanes and passes
Goshen High School. After the high school the road has a traffic light with the old alignment of US 33, before curving northwest and parallel to the
Norfolk Southern Chicago Line. While parallel to the rail tracks US 33 is a limited access roadway and passes over another rail track. The road and rail tacks separate as they enter downtown Goshen. US 33 enters downtown Goshen on Pike Street as a four-lane city street and has a traffic light at
SR 15
Route 15, or Highway 15, can refer to:
For roads named A15, see A15 roads.
International
* Asian Highway 15
* European route E15
* European route E015
Australia New South Wales
* Hunter Expressway
* New England Highway and other local Ne ...
. The route leaves downtown Goshen as a four-lane undivided highway, passing through a
commercial district
A commercial district or commercial zone is any part of a city or town in which the primary land use is commercial activities ( shops, offices, theaters, restaurants and so on), as opposed to a residential neighbourhood, an industrial zone, or ...
and
residential area
A residential area is a land used in which housing predominates, as opposed to industrial and commercial areas.
Housing may vary significantly between, and through, residential areas. These include single-family housing, multi-family resi ...
. After crossing the
Elkhart River
The Elkhart River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed May 19, 2011 tributary of the St. Joseph River in northern Indiana in the United States. It is almost entirely c ...
the highway widens to a four-lane highway with a center turn lane. The route heads towards
Elkhart, paralleling the
Norfolk Southern
The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the company operates 19,420 route miles (31, ...
railroad and passing through
Midway and
Dunlap. On the south side of Elkhart, US 33 has an interchange with
US 20; this interchange is the northern terminus for US 33.
The entire length of US 33 in Indiana is included as a part of the
National Highway System (NHS).
The NHS is a network of highways that are identified as being most important for the economy, mobility and defense of the nation.
The highway is maintained by the
Indiana Department of Transportation
The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) is a governmental agency of the U.S. state of Indiana charged with maintaining and regulating transportation and transportation related infrastructure such as state owned airports, state highways a ...
(INDOT) like all other U.S. Highways in the state. The department tracks the traffic volumes along all state highways as a part of its maintenance responsibilities using a metric called
average annual daily traffic
Annual average daily traffic, abbreviated AADT, is a measure used primarily in transportation planning, transportation engineering and retail location selection. Traditionally, it is the total volume of vehicle traffic of a highway or road for a ...
(AADT). This measurement is a calculation of the traffic level along a segment of roadway for any average day of the year. In 2010, INDOT figured that lowest traffic levels were 3,290 vehicles and 650 commercial vehicles used the highway daily at the Noble-Whitley County area. The peak traffic volumes were 79,520 vehicles and 11,060 commercial vehicles AADT along the section of US 33 at is concurrent with I-69, between the SR 14 and US 30 exits in Fort Wayne.
History
The Lincoln Highway was planned from Illinois state line to
South Bend
South Bend is a city in and the county seat of St. Joseph County, Indiana, on the St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total of 103,453 residents and is the fourt ...
to Fort Wayne and the Ohio state line in 1913. In 1915, the highway opened and passed through downtown Fort Wayne on its route through Indiana.
In 1917, Main Market route number 2 was the given number to the Lincoln Highway in Indiana.
In the early 1920s, the Lincoln Highway was moved farther south between Valparaiso and Fort Wayne, to what is now known mostly as Old US 30, passing through Plymouth and Warsaw.
The route became SR 2 from Ohio state line to South Bend, SR 1 from South Bend to Michigan state line. Then in 1924, the sections of the road that was part of the original Lincoln Highway was paved.
The next few years the rest of the route was paved across Indiana, then in 1937 US 33 was created.
In 1998, INDOT rerouted most of its maintained routes onto interstate highways around Fort Wayne, so US 33 was routed onto I-469 and I-69 around the south side of the city. In the same year, INDOT removed US 33 north of
US 20 and the
St. Joseph County portion became
SR 933.
In 2004, INDOT tried to return SR 933 to the local communities but they did not accept.
In 2018 a new alignment of US 33 bypassing downtown Goshen to the northeast opened.
Major intersections
See also
*
References
External links
Indiana Highway Ends: US 33
{{state detail page browse, type=US, route=33, state=Indiana, stateafter=Ohio
33
Transportation in Fort Wayne, Indiana
Transportation in Elkhart, Indiana
Transportation in Adams County, Indiana
Transportation in Allen County, Indiana
Transportation in Whitley County, Indiana
Transportation in Noble County, Indiana
Transportation in Elkhart County, Indiana
U.S. Route 033 in Indiana