INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — One of the busiest routes into downtown Indianapolis will be out of commission through the end of next month.

Capitol Avenue closed Monday along a two-block stretch from 16th Street down to 14th Street. IU Health says the shutdown will allow construction crews to complete utility work on the system’s new downtown hospital project.

As a one-way, Capitol is a main artery for incoming traffic in the mornings. It’s also a key hub for people using IU Health’s many facilities in the area. The change will truly affect tens of thousands of trips into the city; the city’s most recent Annual Average Daily Traffic count shows 8,381 passenger cars and trucks use Capitol in that part of the city each day. A few hundred more heavy trucks use it each day, too.

Construction signals and orange barrels are nothing new in the area; the hospital construction work has been squeezing Capitol since the new project broke ground, but this will be the first extended closure.

The detour is a bit longer in distance than it might otherwise be: Illinois, one block west, is a northbound one-way, which rules it out as a re-route. Instead, the detour takes drivers two blocks west to Meridian.

Planners expect the closure to last through Sept. 28.

The work is not expected to affect the IndyGo Red Line route northbound or southbound. Planners say you’ll be able to walk through the area using the sidewalk on the east side of Capitol Ave.

In a nod to another reason the intersection is so busy in the mornings, IU Health points out that access to the Starbucks at 13th Street will stay open.