U.S. 41 Study Timeline Slips Four Months; Cost Estimate Rises

Follow-up: the corridor study approved October 3 now lands next fall instead of summer, and the consultant's price is up. The commission accepted both changes Tuesday.

• Delivery moves from summer to fall; consultant cites traffic-count scheduling.
• Study cost rises about 8%; commission accepted without a split vote.
• Scope unchanged — crash data, counts, and right-of-way pricing still the deliverable.

Two weeks after approving the U.S. 41 corridor study, the commission quietly accepted its first schedule slip: the report now arrives next fall, roughly four months late, at a price about 8% higher.

The consultant blamed traffic-count scheduling — counts taken during school breaks would be challenged later, and the county agreed it would rather have defensible numbers than fast ones.

This is the normal physics of road projects: nothing is built, nothing is cancelled, and everything is later and more expensive than the first vote suggested. We'll keep watching this one.