Interstate 65 Indiana

[2trailertrucker]

The VMS signs say to take I 74 west to I 57 North in Illinois.  The closure starts at US 52 exit just north of Lebanon (smart move by INDOT).

[2trailertrucker]

INDOT says that repairs to take 4-6 weeks on Wildcat Creek bridge.

[02 Park Ave]

I still can't understand why the northbound I-65 couldn't be kept open up to Exit 172 or at least to Exit 168.  Is there some specific reason why the motoring public has to be inconvenienced by such a long detour?

[US71]

I'd pull out my maps and find my own detour.

[tdindy88]

You know for all this closure on that stretch of highway, they ought to just rebuild the entire northbound portion of highway from SR 38 up past the bridge to SR 25 (I don't remember if the expansion is going up all the way to SR 43 or not.) If we can do stuff like Hyperfix and whatnot, just rebuild the whole thing and that time frame and don't bother with multiple stages of construction that's supposed to last until 2017. When the road reopens it should be built for three lanes and all ready to go. And if they wanted to be really smart then they could design the new northbound lanes so four-lanes could fit on them temporarily and rebuild all of the southbound lanes. If you're going to inconvenience the people of Lafayette why not make the construction of 65 take less time? This is Indiana of course so....probably not.

[nwi_navigator_1181]

I still can't understand why the northbound I-65 couldn't be kept open up to Exit 172 or at least to Exit 168.  Is there some specific reason why the motoring public has to be inconvenienced by such a long detour?

Logistics.

When you're forced to pull traffic off a major highway, you want to pull traffic off on another road that can handle the load.

U.S. 52 was a big part of the INDOT detour because of multiple reasons:

It's a major divided highway with connections that require no stops. There are no more highways of that type that junction I-65 until, ironically, SR 25.
It pulls a good distance away from local roads that serve local purposes (hence why SRs 26 and 38 would be bad roads to offload traffic upon)
Speaking of SR 26, it's known to be heavy during peak times of the day on a normal day. Forcing traffic onto that road for a detour would be unbearable.

This isn't unprecedented. When floods forced the closure of the Borman in 2008, traffic on I-65 were forced to exit onto U.S. 24 to reach I-57 and eventually Chicago (this was due to the fact that I-65 was already closed due to construction, forcing traffic onto the Borman).

[monty]

I drove a lot of the I 65 detour from West Lafayette to Indy on Thursday and boy, it's a challenge!  INDOT has done a good job of adding signage and alerts.  They also put a temporary stoplight at IN 28 & US 52.  I'd encourage drivers to avoid the route and it's obvious there are many people exploring throughout the Lafayette area for better options, adding to the burden of Sagamore Parkway construction that has that traffic running one lane in each direction.  I 74 to US 41 and even Keystone to US 31 may be decent options going north.  The two lane rural roads with the Interstate level of traffic just seem dangerous.

[thefro]

http://www.indystar.com/story/opinion/2015/08/18/bangert-small-town-becomes--65-detours-whipping-boy/31931501/

Good article about the detour's impact on a gas station along the route and how mad people are.