SOUTH BEND — It could be two years before Indiana Department of Transportation officials break ground on a project to widen and improve Indiana 23 on the city’s northeast side.

But residents in the area are already marshaling their forces to make sure they have a say in the plan.

At a meeting held Thursday at the Robinson Community Learning Center, more than 45 people turned out to hear project officials explain the tentative plan - and to take the opportunity to ask questions and offer their concerns about the project.

“The purpose of this meeting is to increase awareness of the project,” consultant Kwame Awuah, whose firm, Corradino LLC, was hired by the state to examine the environmental impact of the proposed plan, said. “Most importantly, we would call on the public to give us their input.”

The project would represent a major change for the region, which is heavily populated with longtime homeowners, small businesses, and rental homes.

According to materials provided by Awuah, the project would change the existing two-lane section of Indiana 23 between Campeau Street and Twyckenham Boulevard to a four-lane street with a raised, landscaped median intersected by left turn lanes.

A new intersection would be built at Campeau and Eddy streets, and Campeau would be extended west to connect with Notre Dame Avenue.

The infamous six-way intersection at Corby and Eddy streets and South Bend Avenue would be eliminated by realigning the streets, with Eddy and Corby realigned to connect with one another and continue northeastward as South Bend Avenue.

Finally, new left and right turn lanes would be added to the intersection of South Bend Avenue and Twyckenham Drive, and several new signals would be added where streets intersect with Indiana 23.

The design is aimed at improving traffic flow and increasing safety. But residents and property owners want to make sure those improvements don’t come at the cost of the neighborhood they call home, or their livelihoods.

“Our primary concern is that the long-term residents receive proper consideration,” Marguerite Taylor, a local resident and official with the Northeast Neighborhood Revitalization Organization. “... and that people who need to move receive the help they require.”

And there are some very real concerns out there, not all of which InDOT officials were able to address this early in the planning stage.

One man urged project leaders to determine which properties would be razed to make way for the project, as he did not want to make further upgrades to a home that might meet the wrecking ball. A woman worried that the project could funnel too much traffic onto Twyckenham during its construction.

And Phil Slatt, owner of the Corby Fabric Care Center dry cleaning and coin laundry business, worried that the project could drive him out of business.

“This plan seems to isolate me,” he said. “You are going to put my Laundromat in a place where I can’t make any money.”

But InDOT Project Manager Gary Pence stressed that the plan was in the initial stages, and stated that planners would work closely with residents to make sure they had a stake in the planning process.

“Everything is subject to change at this point,” he said, noting that a public hearing on the project would likely be held this fall. “We have a long way to go.”