I-69 declared complete as interchange opens
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Gov. Eric Holcomb and his two immediate predecessors on Tuesday said the completion of I-69 shows Indiana was able to prove the project’s critics wrong.
Standing over a checkered finish line adorned with Interstate 69 shields, Holcomb and former Govs. Mike Pence and Mitch Daniels cut the ribbon on the I-69/I-465 interchange, declaring complete a project decades in the making.
The completion of I-69 in Indiana means it will now be possible to drive from Evansville to the Michigan line and on to the Canadian border at Port Huron, Michigan, without encountering a single stoplight or intersection.
Although the stretch from Indianapolis to Fort Wayne was completed in the 1970s, plans to build the highway south to Evansville languished until then-Gov. Daniels began pushing for completion. On Tuesday, Daniels said as soon as he and his team opened the $4 billion cash bid on the project in January of 2006, he could see the finish line in sight.
“I’m not stretching when I say I saw this day,” he said. “I didn’t know how long it would take, but, I saw this day.”
Work on the highway would take up the bulk of the Daniels administration, the entirety of Pence’s single term as governor, and all of Holcomb’s two terms in office. Pence called Tuesday’s ceremony the culmination of an epic journey. He said conversations about a highway linking Evansville with Indianapolis date back to the 1940s.
“This is more than just a highway. This is a monument to the determination of the people of Indiana and leadership for generations to leave this state better than we found it,” he said.
Holcomb said the Indiana Department of Transportation finished the highway on budget and three years ahead of schedule. He said the highway would be a magnet for growth and make the journey from Evansville to Indianapolis safer. He also said the elimination of stop-and-go traffic along the route would mean fewer tailpipe emissions.
“It just speaks to how our own came together, Hoosiers came together and said we’re going to get something that’s been talked about for literally decades done ahead of schedule,” he said. “We’ve gone from a lot of talk, a lot of conversation, to action and dirt turning to today.”
INDOT officials said the ramps from I-465 onto southbound I-69 will open Tuesday evening. The ramps from northbound I-69 onto I-465 will follow sometime on or after Friday. As the ramps in each direction open, the corresponding lanes of State Road 37 will be cut off from the Interstate.
Road work itself is not yet complete. The Harding Street exit off I-465 will close, so traffic will need to detour to the Southport Road exit to get around it. INDOT officials said drivers also should expect temporary lane closures. The last work around the interchange is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year.
The highway will be designated the Iraq-Afghanistan Veterans Memorial Highway from Indianapolis to the Kentucky state line.
Indiana has one last project related to I-69 to complete after the work around the interchange is finished: a new bridge over the Ohio River, a joint project with Kentucky. Holcomb said the bridge project is on track and he plans to be in Evansville next month to celebrate another milestone for it.
The bridge is part of Kentucky’s project to extend I-69 from Henderson to Evansville. I-69 in Kentucky currently picks back up about six miles from the Ohio River and continues to Mayfield, about 20 miles from the Tennessee line.