Update on I-69 Extension in Indiana

[jnewkirk77]

OK, INDOT has made it official:  From I-465 north to the MI state line, add 200 to the exit numbers on I-69.  There will be signs with the old and new numbers until at least 2015; the old numbers will all be removed by 2017.  http://www.buildi69.com/?p=1685

By my math, that'll make the final Indiana exit #357 (Indiana 120).

[mukade]

Actually exit 357 is Lake George Rd., not SR 120.

Coincidentally (or not), the highest exit number in Illinois is exit 357 on I-57.

[mukade]

With a picture included:

I-69 exits to get higher numbers (from Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette)

[jnewkirk77]

Actually exit 357 is Lake George Rd., not SR 120.

Coincidentally (or not), the highest exit number in Illinois is exit 357 on I-57.

Well, crap ... I knew that ... sorry for the goof on my part.  I do that from time to time.

[mukade]

Yikes, the numbers on the image appear to all be in Clearview - even on the highway markers. I assume that is a mistake on the part of the graphic artist.

[mukade]

More I-69 news...

From Evansville Courier & Press today: "A federal judge has ruled against opponents of the $3 billion Interstate 69 extension between Indianapolis and Evansville who claimed that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers violated federal law by giving Indiana permission to fill wetlands and reroute streams along part of the 142-mile roadway..."

UPDATE: Environmental groups lose in bid to stop I-69

[ARMOURERERIC]

Can I make a speculation here:  What is the chance InDot knows something along the lines of:  There will be an eventual outer belt, most likely partial of Indy for I-69, that just happens to be close to the additional 16 miles.

[jnewkirk77]

Yikes, the numbers on the image appear to all be in Clearview - even on the highway markers. I assume that is a mistake on the part of the graphic artist.

I'm pretty sure that's just a drawing the J-G put together for the article based on the info from INDOT.  As far as I know, INDOT hasn't used Clearview anywhere ... yet.

[tdindy88]

There are two that I know of...but don't worry, they are likely not from INDOT. The first is on the Indiana Toll Road and that is no longer a INDOT-maintained highway, for now. The second I saw was on US 50 west at the Red Skeleton Bridge with a sign that read the bridge's name along with Wabash River. However, this is clearly an Illinois sign and not INDOT, but is on the Indiana side of the river. Just FYI.

[jnewkirk77]

There are two that I know of...but don't worry, they are likely not from INDOT. The first is on the Indiana Toll Road and that is no longer a INDOT-maintained highway, for now. The second I saw was on US 50 west at the Red Skeleton Bridge with a sign that read the bridge's name along with Wabash River. However, this is clearly an Illinois sign and not INDOT, but is on the Indiana side of the river. Just FYI.

Yeah, Illinois posted the signs at the Wabash, I knew that ... kind of the way Kentucky did the ones on both sides of the Natcher Bridge over the Ohio on 231.  Kentucky recently replaced the 1-mile BGS for Indiana 66 south of the bridge and it's Clearview, but just says "Tell City-Rockport-Evansville" with NO mention of 66 at all.  (Reminds me, I need to get a pic of that soon.)

[mukade]

FWIW... I took the pic in 2011, but forgot it was missing the SR 66 marker.

[tdindy88]

Yep, I remember that sign too. BTW, where did you see that the 465/69 interchange project is back on. I've been to the project's website (currently focused on the Allisonville Road bridge primarly) and didn't see anything that showed when they were going to do this.

[mukade]

Yep, I remember that sign too. BTW, where did you see that the 465/69 interchange project is back on. I've been to the project's website (currently focused on the Allisonville Road bridge primarly) and didn't see anything that showed when they were going to do this.

I-465/I-69 and 82nd Street interchanges from INDOT (465-69 Northeast project)

[roadman]

http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20120726/LOCAL/307269984/1002/LOCAL

Gotta love the DOT's logic here.  "We think that putting up exit numbers that match the exact milepoint would be too confusing for people, so we'll put up a set of numbers that conform neither to the nearest mile marker or GPS units."

Just another example of the ongoing dumbing-down of America.

[SEWIGuy]

It sounds more like the dumbing-down of INDOT and not America.... 

[jnewkirk77]

FWIW... I took the pic in 2011, but forgot it was missing the SR 66 marker.

Thanks. You're good! :-)

[tdindy88]

Actually exit 357 is Lake George Rd., not SR 120.

Coincidentally (or not), the highest exit number in Illinois is exit 357 on I-57.

Of course, Interstate 57 in Illinois, actually is 357 miles long. Sorry, I was trying to make a quick jab at INDOT for their lack of logic. Maybe if they routed I-69 along the eastern leg of I-465 AND the northern leg back around to Exit 21 (I-65) and then south on I-65 to downtown and then east on I-70 back to I-465 and then north to Exit 37 to rejoin I-69, at which point the interstate will likely then be at 200 miles. Please don't take any of this seriously though, I'm just coming up with one stupid idea to go along with another, and yes I-69 would be multiplexed with itself for a few miles, along with I-465.

Sad that it is being done this way, but I'll just have to get used to it that way and hold out that that numbers may be reset once again when the bridge over the Ohio River gets completed and forces the rest of the new alignment to change as well.

[PurdueBill]

The +200 thing isn't the end of the world.  Given that the renumbering will take a few months, with old and new numbers appearing on different sides of the road and with mileposts and BGS not necessarily getting changed at the same time, with GPS and paper maps not necessarily updating for some time, just saying "add 200 to the old number" is a simple way to ease confusion and let motorists spend less time figuring new exit numbers and more time paying attention to the road, especially during the changeover. 

Not all that many people are probably going to be going from the new construction I-69 through the existing I-69 for long distances, regardless of what the Canamex crowd says.

None of the +200 thing would be possible were it not for the overlap with 465.  With congestion on and near 465 and the 55 speed limit, travel times on the overlap are going to make it so that timewise the travel from mile marker 75 to mile marker 275 will probably take close to the time one would expect the first time through if one had never been there before and didn't know about the 16-mile difference.  It's not the end of the world or a sign of dimwittedness--it's a convenience matter.  The worst that happens to anyone is that they arrive sooner or drive less distance than they expected--not later or longer.

Yikes, the numbers on the image appear to all be in Clearview - even on the highway markers. I assume that is a mistake on the part of the graphic artist.

They may even be Arial--the numeral 1 looks Arial at least.  They weren't probably going for pattern accuracy in the cartoon, although being "courtesy INDOT", it's too bad it wasn't a little better looking.

[ljwestmcsd]

I-64 is off about a mile in Lexington, KY, but it's hidden by the I-75 multiplex, so there is a precedence for this kind of thing.

[vdeane]

Actually exit 357 is Lake George Rd., not SR 120.

Coincidentally (or not), the highest exit number in Illinois is exit 357 on I-57.

Of course, Interstate 57 in Illinois, actually is 357 miles long. Sorry, I was trying to make a quick jab at INDOT for their lack of logic. Maybe if they routed I-69 along the eastern leg of I-465 AND the northern leg back around to Exit 21 (I-65) and then south on I-65 to downtown and then east on I-70 back to I-465 and then north to Exit 37 to rejoin I-69, at which point the interstate will likely then be at 200 miles. Please don't take any of this seriously though, I'm just coming up with one stupid idea to go along with another, and yes I-69 would be multiplexed with itself for a few miles, along with I-465.

Sad that it is being done this way, but I'll just have to get used to it that way and hold out that that numbers may be reset once again when the bridge over the Ohio River gets completed and forces the rest of the new alignment to change as well.

Does the current 16 mile gap not include the current I-164 mileage?  If it doesn't, then INDOT might have no plans to renumber I-69 ever again and be putting the 0 point at the location of the proposed Ohio River bridge.

[tdindy88]

The 184 miles, I believe, includes everything from I-164's Exit 0 at US 41, north along the new alignment to Bloomington, where it will be Exit 114, and then a roughly 50-mile stretch up SR 37 to I-465 (somewhere in the 160s I think) and then the remainding distance around I-465 to the current southern end of I-69. The new bridge over the Ohio River to the east of US 41 will change the mileage a little, but only by a few miles, not 16. To me, it says something when INDOT had to ask AASHTO (I think) to do the renumbering like the way they are doing it twice. Apparently, the first time AASHTO must have thought, this is stupid.

In the grand scheme of things, yeah, this won't matter too much and I'll get over it, I like logic though so that's where I'm coming from. When I look at how long the highways are across various states, I look for the last exit before the highway crosses into a new state. When I see the last exit on I-75 in Florida is 476 (give or take a few) then I know that the entire highway across Florida is that long. When I see that the last exit on I-69 is 357, you have to be a roadgeek who is into this sort of thing to realize that the real distance is off a bit and is not truly 357 miles long. So, for the sake of convenience, we throw out truth and logic, and that is all I will say on the matter. It is what it is, my life will go on and I won't complain about this anymore.

[mukade]

I do not believe it starts at I-164 exit 0. Instead, it would start at the Ohio River where Kentucky and Indiana agreed the new bridge will be. That is a mile or two different so I assume all I-164 exit numbers will also have to change. As evidence, note that the I-69 exit 22 at SR 68 was changed so that sign now has no exit number. Exit 22 was an extension of the I-164 exit numbering system.

[jnewkirk77]

Using Google Earth's handy-dandy little path ruler, it's ~17.5 miles from the Ohio River up I-164 and I-69 (the last little bit o' the way) to SR 68/57.  That's if the bridge goes in going due south (or close) from current I-164's Exit 5 (SR 662/Covert Ave.), so long term (very long term, most likely), the 68/57 exit will be either #17 or 18.

[mukade]

I don't remember exactly where the new bridge is supposed to be, but I think it is near, but west of where the Green River joins the Ohio River. So I think I-69 would turn south a little west of the Green River Rd. interchange on current I-164.

[jnewkirk77]

I don't remember exactly where the new bridge is supposed to be, but I think it is near, but west of where the Green River joins the Ohio River. So I think I-69 would turn south a little west of the Green River Rd. interchange on current I-164.

That may be closer to correct than what I was thinking.  At most, though, it would add 1 or perhaps 2 miles to my earlier post.