In 2004, there was a major accident and subsequent truck fire that caused a complete, all-day shutdown of I-80/94 in Gary (near Grant Street, if I’m not mistaken). To set the scene, this was before the expressway was expanded to four lanes. As a matter of fact, the first round of expansion reconstruction was fully underway in the Hammond area.
I lived on US 20 in the Miller area at the time. With the Borman completely crippled, the Toll Road was jammed up significantly (this road had yet to expand as well, work was still a year away). That left US 12 and 20, and I could see the effects of the expressway fire right outside my window. Westbound US 20 was at a near standstill, and it spilled over onto US 12 right behind my house. Obviously, I-65 was pinched because of this accident too.
I wanted to go to Merrillville that day, so I had to wait for westbound traffic to let me in, then I cut through business parking lots to get to US 12 east (US 12 and 20 were that close to each other at that time). Long story short, I had to head east to Indiana 51 to have any level of moving traffic then used Ridge Road to get to I-65. To get back home, I was able to get to I-80/94, but remembering that I had to cut through westbound traffic to get into my driveway, I had to take I-80/94 east to Central Avenue, then used 15th Avenue and Lake Street to go back to US 20, take advantage of the gap in traffic because of a traffic light, then clamber my way back home.
Funnily enough, not counting the local streets, this was the designated detour for traffic looking to travel on I-65 when that highway was shut down for construction in 2008.