INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A business owner along the I-69 corridor on Tuesday said the highway project has brought some headaches, but he likes the results so far.

Royal Spa’s factory sits between the current State Road 37 and the future northbound lanes of I-69, still under construction. Co-owner Bob Dapper said he’s watched the project closely since it was first announced. So far, he said he likes the results he’s seen farther south.

“As I go past Oliver Winery, I’m very pleased with how their facility turned out because it was a mess down there while the construction was going on,” he said. “But their place is really a beautiful place now that the construction has moved on, so I’m hoping that we’ll have similar results.”

The area around Dapper’s factory is now the epicenter of the I-69 Finish Line project, the sixth and final segment of SR-37 to interstate standards between Martinsville and Indianapolis. Once completed, I-69 will run from Evansville through the Indianapolis metro area to Fort Wayne and onto the Michigan line. INDOT officials have long said the project will be completed by the end of 2024.

By the end of November, construction crews had removed all of the traffic signals south of Epler Avenue and the interchanges along the route were nearly complete. Crews currently are building the interchange between I-69 and I-465 and widening the latter highway to accommodate the extra traffic. INDOT spokesperson Kyleigh Cramer said as part of the project, SR-37 around Epler Avenue will become a city street. Interstate traffic will use a new set of lanes that will lead to the I-465 interchange.

Cramer said construction right now is on schedule. She said the stretch of mild weather around Christmas has helped crews work ahead. She said it’s still too soon to say when the project will be done, other than sometime at the end of 2024. She said there are still too many variables that could affect the completion date, such as winter and spring storms. Cramer said INDOT won’t be able to announce an anticipated completion date before the end of summer.

Dapper said he’s used to road construction projects falling behind schedule, so he’s not going to hold INDOT to a completion date. He said his main concern is how crews plan to connect his factory to SR-37 once the road layout changes. He said it might take customers some time to adjust to the changes, though he doubts it will affect his business in the long run.

“Right now, we’re pretty comfortable with the way that things are going and with anything in business, you have to get really good at making lemonade out of lemons,” he said.