I-69/SR 37 interchange redesign

[BU191433]

I-69 project will restrict northbound ramps at 116th/Ind. 37 interchange | Indianapolis Star | indystar.com

I-69 project will restrict northbound ramps at 116th/Ind. 37 interchange



Work begins next week to open up the bottleneck areas of Interstate-69 at the 116th Street and Indiana 37 exits.
It’s part of Operation Indy Commute project.

Milestone Contractors of Columbus, Ind. will begin placing construction signs this week under an $18.1 million construction contract. Beginning on or after Monday, crews will begin nighttime lane restrictions — 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. Monday through Saturday through mid-June — on northbound I-69 and Ind. 37 to place pavement and widen the northbound outside shoulder.

Since no roads will be closed, there is no official detour for this phase of the project. Any alternate routes would be best decided by drivers based on their destination, said Nathan Riggs, spokesperson for INDOT, Greenfield District.

Construction this year will focus on I-69 near the 116th Street/Ind. 37 interchange and the northbound entrance and exit ramps. Work will resume in 2013 on the southbound interchange area and adding lanes to I-69 between I-465 and 116th Street.

These are the 2012 improvements on the schedule:

> A new flyover ramp will carry two lanes of northbound traffic from I-69 to Ind. 37.

> I-69 near the 116th Street/Ind. 37 interchange will be restriped to allow three lanes to exit and three lanes to continue north on I-69.

> For traffic exiting I-69, there will be a three-lane split so that two lanes of traffic will continue onto northbound Ind. 37 and two lanes of traffic will exit at 116th Street.

> There will be three lanes of ramp traffic north of 116th Street. Traffic entering I-69 will stay to the right and enter north of the new Ind. 37 overpass, eliminating weaving patterns for traffic on 116th Street travelling to I-69 or Ind. 37.

The second phase, expected around June, will be a day and night traffic configuration. Construction will restrict northbound and southbound I-69 near the 116th Street/Ind. 37 interchange to two lanes in each direction. The northbound I-69 ramp to 116th Street and Ind. 37 will also be limited to one lane. Road and ramp restrictions are scheduled to end in November.

The Operation Indy Commute project is an initiative by Indiana Department of Transportation to strategically eliminate recurring commuting bottlenecks on I-69 in Marion and Hamilton counties. The program is modeled after successful, quick-turnaround traffic flow improvements built in other states under the Federal Highway Administration’s Localized Bottleneck Reduction Program. For more information on Operation Indy Commute, visit www.indycommute.indot.in.gov