If you drive to Indianapolis and use Interstate 465, start planning now for how you’ll avoid the southern part of the loop.
The southwestern quadrant of Interstate 465 is temporarily closing to allow for massive highway and bridge repairs, affecting tens of thousands of drivers who live, work or do business on the southside or use the interstate to get elsewhere in central Indiana.
More than 30,000 Johnson County residents commute to Indianapolis everyday for work.
At 9 p.m. Friday, the eastbound lanes of the stretch between Interstate 70 and Interstate 65 will be shut down, according to the Indianapolis Department of Transportation. That road is slated to re-open by 5 a.m. on Sept. 24.
Then, on Sept. 28, I-465 westbound between I-65 and I-70 will close at 9 p.m., with the project expected to be completed by 5 a.m. Oct. 8.
The two directions will not be closed at the same time.
INDOT says that closing the lanes will allow for the project to be completed more efficiently than closing off individual lanes and keeping others open.
“The closure expedites the work needed to be completed and eliminates maintaining traffic during this significant project, which could take up to several months to complete with motorists driving through the work zone,” the department said on the project web page.
Charles Tashiro, a Center Grove resident who works in Noblesville, said that the construction will likely add at least 15 minutes, if not more, to his commute. Instead of getting on I-465 at U.S. 31, Tashiro will now have to drive east through Greenwood — hitting another construction project on Madison Avenue — to get around the closures.
“If I have to add 30 minutes, I think I’d be lucky,” said Tashiro, who added that his regular business trips to Lafayette in the other direction will also be affected.
This affects anybody who lives on the southside or who does any business between 65 and 70.
The project includes pavement removal and replacement across the entire stretch between I-70 and I-65 in both directions, bridge joint replacements and asphalt and concrete pavement patching.
Additionally, concrete bridge approach replacements will be completed on the four bridges that go over Kentucky Avenue/State Road 67; State Ditch; White River; and Harding Street/State Road 37.
Tashiro, for one, praises the American interstate system as the best in the world, but he still wishes that improvements could be made a lane or two at a time rather than having I-465 closed.
“I’ll just have to grin and bear it,” he said.
