I-465 SB between I-70 and I-65 on track to reopen by June 21
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The Indiana Department of Transportation says a portion of I-465 southbound between I-70 and I-65 on the southeast side should be reopened by June 21.
Good weather kept the project on track to meet the projected 21-day closure.
Crews will shut down the northbound portion for 21 days to make similar repairs on July 12, after the Fourth of July traffic.
Drivers are concerned. Traffic backups are causing ripple effects.
“It’s been chaotic and I’ve been late for work maybe twice,” said Christian Paez, an Indianapolis man working in landscaping. “From property to property I have to find new routes because all of this stuff is closed down.”
Others know that maintenance is necessary to keep the roads working.
“It’s just what they gotta do. We gotta get our roads better,” said Casey Cornelius, another Indianapolis driver. “The roads are pretty bad right now. Thankful for the guys out there doing the work but it sucks for us.”
Crews are making major repairs including taking out portions of the road and fully repaving. This is called full-depth concrete pavement patching. INDOT crews are repairing more than 8,000 square feet of road, enough space for 45 African Elephants to stand shoulder to shoulder.
They are also doing smaller concrete joint repairs to more than 9,000 square feet of this section of I-465. These repairs require crews to remove just the damaged part of the concrete and pave over the base level.
“I-465 is reaching its lifespan,” said Kyleigh Cramer, a public relations director for INDOT. “We have to make sure we are including this maintenance work to extend that lifespan.”
INDOT said shutting down this stretch ensures the project will be done faster and keep the crews safe.
“It’s the safest route that we’ve found and it’s the easiest one too. It’s a 21-day closure. It’s a quick in and out compared to what it would be as an alternate,” Cramer said. “It’s all about safety at the end of the day. It’s safety [in] patching these potholes to make sure people get to and from their destination safely and making sure these folks don’t have to be in a construction zone and the safety of the crews as well.”
This project is just routine pavement improvements. It will not change the flow of traffic.