Update on I-69 Extension in Indiana

[rickmastfan67]

I-69 shields and signs are up on WB Southport Road... with a future banner on top of them. That's got to be a first for Indiana for uncovered signs.

Pictures or it didn't happen.

[westerninterloper]

I-69 shields and signs are up on WB Southport Road... with a future banner on top of them. That's got to be a first for Indiana for uncovered signs.

Pictures or it didn't happen.

I saw it Tuesday on one reassurance shield in the construction zone.

[tdindy88]

I-69 shields and signs are up on WB Southport Road... with a future banner on top of them. That's got to be a first for Indiana for uncovered signs.

Pictures or it didn't happen.

Here you go then:

I saw these signs last Saturday and were quite surprised by them as well. So I went and grabbed a few pictures of them today.

These two are on Southport Road approaching future I-69




This one is at the onramp from County Line Road to future I-69 northbound:


Now on northbound future I-69 this is a BGS approaching the "now correctly signed" Exit 160 at Southport Road.


And finally a view of the gore point for Exit 160 off of future northbound I-69 showing the Southport Road overpass in the distance.


Speaking of the Southport Road area, it seems like most of the work along that road is close to finished and they still have it down to two-lanes around the exit and heading east toward Harding Street. I know during the closure of I-465 east this was a traffic nightmare. It would be kind of nice for the construction people to wrap that up as soon as possible. Then again there maybe something in the way that I'm not seeing as I most definitely am not ITB.

[ITB]

^^^
Interesting pictures. Thanks for sharing. As for work between Southport Road and Epler Avenue, one big project still to do is the new southbound mainline bridge over Banta Road. That, however, has yet to commence construction, and it's going to take a while to complete. Maybe they'll get it done this year, maybe not. Currently, material is being trucked in to build up the approaches to the bridge. We'll have a better idea of the construction time frame when pile driving gets underway. There's an INDOT traffic cam positioned at Banta, allowing construction progress to be easily monitored.

[Interstate 69 Fan]

Hopefully construction crews were safe during yesterday's tornado outbreak - one tornado came really close to almost crossing 69's construction.

[cjw2001]

INDOT Progress report video on the June I-465 closure https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX1uxlRhvsU

[ITB]

Here's a trio of screen shots from INDOT traffic cameras. Usually the cameras live stream at low resolution, but that feature was not available yesterday. Instead, the system reverted to capturing frames, approximately every two minutes, and at decent resolution.


INDOT Traffic Camera
Looking slightly southeast from near the SR 37/Banta Road underpass in Marion County. In the background is the recently completed Southport Road overpass. On the right is S. Belmont Avenue. In this vicinity, all SR 37 traffic is currently running on the newly completed northbound lanes. There's been progress on the southbound roadway, but, as can be seen, a good deal of work remains.


INDOT Traffic Camera
This is where the new southbound mainline bridge over Banta Road will be built; looking northeast. Work has been continuing in this area, but it seems as if the new bridge is somewhat of a low priority, as work elsewhere has taken precedence. Unless pile driving commences soon, the bridge likely won't complete this year.


INDOT Traffic Camera
Looking northwest toward the bridge that carries US 31/East Street over I-465 in Marion County. In this area during the recent eastbound closure, paving crews were at work putting down thousands of yards of concrete, for both the barrier wall and travel lanes. In time, all the old concrete of the eastbound lanes will be rubblized, followed by paving with new concrete.

Only 18 months to go before this project is projected to wrap. In terms of days, there's exactly 550 to go until 2025.

[Life in Paradise]

I'm guessing with the repeated severe weather that Central and Southern Indiana has experienced over the past few days (including a tornado through Greenwood, IN) that work has hit a pause at least for a few days.  Bound to happen since they had  several weeks without rain that allowed a jump in work.

[ITB]

I'm guessing with the repeated severe weather that Central and Southern Indiana has experienced over the past few days (including a tornado through Greenwood, IN) that work has hit a pause at least for a few days.  Bound to happen since they had  several weeks without rain that allowed a jump in work.

The recent stormy weather has undoubtedly affected the pace of construction. There's been some work hours lost, to be sure. How many it's hard to say. On days when inclement weather is expected, team members typically report to work and work proceeds until it is called off. For instance, let's say work commences at 8 am, but heavy thunderstorms roll in at 3pm. In that case, six-plus hours of work, minus breaks, was able to be accomplished. Not quite a full day, but close. And that's how construction work proceeds, day after day. They work until they are unable to. Sometimes bad weather leads to the entire work day being cancelled, but that's not all that common.

[ITB]

Couple more screen grabs from INDOT traffic cams.


INDOT Traffic Camera
Great perspective looking north from near the SR 37/Banta Road underpass in Marion County. About where the blue building is located, I-69 will veer left and continue in a northwest direction up to the new interchange with I-465, a distance about a mile. Just prior to the interchange, the lanes will go under Epler Avenue. And visible in the background (left) is the recently completely Epler Avenue overpass, better seen when the picture is expanded.


INDOT Traffic Camera
View from the Mann Road camera, zoomed in on the traffic near the future I-69 interchange. On the far right, mid-frame, is where construction is underway on the new eastbound bridge over the White River. This significant bridge is projected to complete by the end of the year. Further back is the new, future roadway of the eastbound lanes and the exit ramp to Harding Street. The exit ramp will pass through a gap of the I-465W to I-69S ramp (deep background, right), as well as under the I-69N to I-465W flyover, the girders of which have yet to be placed.

[silverback1065]

  will the 465/69 interchange be exit 5 or exit 4a (with harding being 4b)?

[jhuntin1]

I'm guessing Exit 5. It's far enough away from Harding St., and if I were INDOT I would want a major Interstate-to-Interstate movement to have it's own number instead of one shared with another exit.

[The Ghostbuster]

It will be 4B (with IN 37 becoming 4A): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_465#Exit_list.

[sprjus4]

It will be 4B (with IN 37 becoming 4A): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_465#Exit_list.

Is there an actual source, besides Wikipedia?

[tdindy88]

There's signage plans I put up somewhere in this thread. I-69 will indeed be Exit 4B and Harding Street will be Exit 4A. Interestingly enough, the northeast side interchange with I-69 and I-465 have I-69 as Exit 37B and Binford Blvd as Exit 37A, so there's precedent for this exit numbering.

[ITB]

^^^^
Here are those signage plans that you dug up from the Section 6 documents in 2021. Thanks for doing that. I know it takes time.



And here's your very informative summary, originally posted on Page 163.

1. This is at northbound I-465 with I-70 on the west side. Peoria now gets control city status along I-465, complementing what's currently at the I-65 interchange on the south side. I-70 is just St. Louis and Indy, no mention of the airport, which will get regulated to supplemental signage prior to the exit. Lots of APL signs along this section.

2. Sign along I-465 east of Mann Rd with I-69 and controls of Ft Wayne and Evansville, no exit tab interestingly enough.

3. APL signage along I-465 west at the Mann Rd interchange. There will be five lanes heading west from Mann Rd, the rightmost lane will exit off at Kentucky Avenue.

4. APL signage at I-465 east and I-69, marked as Exit 4b. Harding St is Exit 4a and I-69 south is indeed signed for Evansville. Interesting there is no signage for Martinsville and Bloomington. I do think some supplemental signage would be appropriate, hell the signs already exist, just throw a B next to the Exit 4. I-69 north gets a control city of Ft Wayne heading east from Exit 4 A-B.

5.  Looking west on I-465 at Exit 4B with 465/74 signed for Peoria and I-69 south again signed for Evansville.

6. Placment of the three interstate shields that will mark Indiana's first interstate triplex.

7. Heading east at Exit 2 A-B I-465/69/74 loses two lanes at the exit, it's five lanes heading east from Exit 4 but one lane goes off at Exit 2B and the other at Exit 2A. This keeps the lane configuration the same where US 31 crosses over the interstate, meaning there's no need to change the interchange design for now. I mean they should fix that exit but it seems like they're not going to.

8. I-465/69/74 westbound at Exit 2A. The "widening" of I-465 between Exits 2 and 53 will be three mainline lanes and one auxilary lane on the right. The SB I-65 ramp to westbound I-465 becomes an auxiliary lane that turns off at Exit 2A. Here Exit 4B is signed two miles away, but no mention of Harding St

9. A similar auxiliary lane exists on the eastbound part of I-465/69/74 between US 31 and I-65 south, which turns off here at Exit 53B. This again means that the lane configuration within I-65 interchange will stay the same.

10. Signage for the Southport Rd exit along I-69 south. Something's weird on this one. The signage plans have it signed as Exit 162, but the left are two planned milemarkers in the same location that designated this as Mile 160. Based on a look at the mileage along SR 37 this should be Exit 160. I noticed the Wikipedia article on I-69 was recently changed perhaps to reflect this signage plan, but it looks to be two miles off. SR 144 is Exit 153 which is correct but Smith Valley Rd is Exit 158 acccording to the I-69 page. It's only three miles between the two plans and signage plans do show it as Exit 156. Likewise County Line Rd should be 158, Southport 160 and Epler/Harding as 161 and I-465 as 162.

11. Mileage sign south of Southport Rd with mentions of Martinsville/Bloomington/Evansville. The first mileage sign along I-69 south of I-465.

12. Signs for Exit 161 (shown here as 163) for Epler Ave TO Harding St. The best way to sign this arrangement. Exit 162 (shown as 164) mentions both I-74 controls of Peoria and Cincinnati plus the I-69 north control city of Ft Wayne. This would provide a perfect match to the plans for I-69 on the north side where Evansville is the control city at the I-465 interchange. I do like it very much that Indiana is sticking with Ft Wayne and Evansville as the control cities and not places like...Fulton, KY.

13. I-69 north's final split at I-465, two lanes heading west toward 465/74 and Peoria and two lanes heading east for 69 north to Ft Wayne and 465/74 to Cincinnati. Interestingly, there's no mention of the airport on any of these signs, that may not be a bad idea for I-69 approaching I-465.

Anyway, this has been a very long thread but I thought some might be interested in how the final part of I-69 will look.

[ARMOURERERIC]

Why no mention of Chicago on BGS for 69 N at 465

[JREwing78]

Why no mention of Chicago on BGS for 69 N at 465

Neither I-465, I-74, nor I-69 end up anywhere near Chicago. They *could* add a supplemental sign somewhere, perhaps, but that just adds to the sea of signage normal at a major interchange.

It would make more sense if any of the three roads went to Chicago.

SM-G991U

[bob7374]

Sorry if this has been brought up before, but has anyone proposed removing the I-465 designation where it will run concurrent with I-69 (or I-74 for that matter)? Having 3 interstates on the same roadway seems a little to much (except maybe if your Wisconsin).

[The Ghostbuster]

I highly doubt any of 465 will be decommissioned, given it is a full beltway around Indianapolis. If Wisconsin didn't decommission 894, the 465 designation is safe.

[ilpt4u]

Why no mention of Chicago on BGS for 69 N at 465

Neither I-465, I-74, nor I-69 end up anywhere near Chicago. They *could* add a supplemental sign somewhere, perhaps, but that just adds to the sea of signage normal at a major interchange.

It would make more sense if any of the three roads went to Chicago.

SM-G991U

465's parent is Controlled with Chicago, even if it terminates within the state of Indiana, it gets close. Not unusual for 3di's to use a parent's Control

That said, 465 has mostly gone Controlless, save for its Multiplexed Controls like Cincy, Peoria, and coming soon Ft Wayne and Evansville

If INDOT were MoDOT that I-465/I-74 West BGS at the north end of I-69 southern extension would be Controlled Chicago and Peoria, but then again MoDOT has a weird fascination with Chicago along 270 and 255. IDOT and ISTHA would just Control it "Illinois"  which works for 70W, 74W, and 65N

Personally, I would Control it, at least, Indy Airport/Peoria. A case can be made for Chicago, but that isn't the typical standard for 465

[roadman65]

Why no mention of Chicago on BGS for 69 N at 465

Neither I-465, I-74, nor I-69 end up anywhere near Chicago. They *could* add a supplemental sign somewhere, perhaps, but that just adds to the sea of signage normal at a major interchange.

It would make more sense if any of the three roads went to Chicago.

SM-G991U

465’s parent is Controlled with Chicago, even if it terminates within the state of Indiana, it gets close. Not unusual for 3di’s to use a parent’s Control

However INDOT never used them on I-465.  KDOT also does not use them for I-435 in Kansas.  It’s common for beltways to not have them.

Also the additions of control cities on I-70 at the western I-465 junction was recent. Peoria and Cincinnati were never used before. 

I agree though partly. On the east junction with I-70, Fort Wayne should have been used as both I-69 and I-70 never connected  for the NB ( Outer Loop) there.

https://goo.gl/maps/zM75qqxYyHrbxAjr8
https://goo.gl/maps/y8inf2YXofdeqxmc9
Two street view images. You can see that the control cities were added in sometime between 09 and 11.  So it s over a decade old, but considering before that that prior to the that date going back to the construction of I-465 or I-70 never had any even with I-74 always concurrent on the beltway.

[ilpt4u]

465S is Controlled for Indy Airport at the northern I-65 junction, so to say it is completely Controlless is not quite accurate. INDOT typically leaves 465 Uncontrolled, tho

I honestly thought I remembered that BGS at the northern junction having Indy Airport and Louisville for 465S, but that is not what GSV sees

I haven't driven that way in awhile, anyway. I might have imagined it

[roadman65]

465S is Controlled for Indy Airport at the northern I-65 junction, so to say it is completely Controlless is not quite accurate. INDOT typically leaves 465 Uncontrolled, tho

I honestly thought I remembered that BGS at the northern junction having Indy Airport and Louisville for 465S, but that is not what GSV sees

I haven't driven that way in awhile, anyway. I might have imagined it

https://goo.gl/maps/Lzo7wEqVY2EuftEG6
I see. That, though, is an oddity as INDOT don't usually sign control points for I-465.

Interestingly, to the east Columbus don't sign controls for I-270, but back in the eighties they used both I-70 and I-71 control cities for it.

I'm guessing the change of character along the I-270 corridor had to do with it going from rural to suburban and traffic now prevents free flowing bypass movements.

[silverback1065]

I highly doubt any of 465 will be decommissioned, given it is a full beltway around Indianapolis. If Wisconsin didn't decommission 894, the 465 designation is safe.

That would never happen 465 is an iconic highway here, plus a lot of it is just 465 (ignoring the state and US highways secretly using 465) conversely 894 serves 0 purpose and should be decommissioned as it is cosigned with another interstate for its entire route, I doubt 894 has any name recognition in the area either.