The I-65/70 North Split Reconstruction

[ITB]

BigRigSteve of BigRigTravels drove through the split yesterday from I-65S to I-70E. The pertinent section of the video begins at 3:32:00.

[silverback1065]

looking at today's drone footage I predict that mainline 65 NB will open 1st, followed by SB mainline 65. NB looks like all it needs is guardrail and pavement markings. southbound still appears to need concrete pavement. It looks so close that I would guess NB will open next weekend, with the following weekend for southbound. This is a pure guess on my part based on drone footage.

[ITB]

looking at today's drone footage I predict that mainline 65 NB will open 1st, followed by SB mainline 65. NB looks like all it needs is guardrail and pavement markings. southbound still appears to need concrete pavement. It looks so close that I would guess NB will open next weekend, with the following weekend for southbound. This is a pure guess on my part based on drone footage.

That's a pretty good assessment, and I feel likewise. Seems the contractor wants this project done, as does INDOT and the city of Indianapolis.

[silverback1065]

Good news everyone! Both directions of 65 will open Sunday 4/30/23 through the north split! Only thing left is the C/D. I can confirm this by reading the posted signage on the VMS boards on 65s.

[bmeiser]

Good news everyone! Both directions of 65 will open Sunday 4/30/23 through the north split! Only thing left is the C/D. I can confirm this by reading the posted signage on the VMS boards on 65s.

Verified: https://northsplit.com/north-split-interchange-to-reopen/

[cjw2001]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZC423uxZHg

[bmeiser]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZC423uxZHg

Pretty cool, but I'd like to see a timelapse of the entire interchange construction.

[CtrlAltDel]

Good news everyone! Both directions of 65 will open Sunday 4/30/23 through the north split! Only thing left is the C/D. I can confirm this by reading the posted signage on the VMS boards on 65s.

Verified: https://northsplit.com/north-split-interchange-to-reopen/

Looks like it means that the split will have been closed for 717 days overall, two weeks or thereabouts short of two years.

[silverback1065]

Anybody remember hyper fix?  That happened when I was too young to remember what exactly happened. Can anyone do a quick refresh of what happened then and how traffic behaved?

[tdindy88]

Hyperfix I believe was just rehabilitating the existing bridges between Washington Street and the North Split. There was also some repaving and I think they added the third lane for eastbound I-70 at that point. The project went for something like 50, 60 days I think? I started after Memorial Day (always after the 500) and ended in late July or early August. Otherwise I don't remember traffic being too terrible, I guess with it taking place in the summer it made things better. And they also finished the project a few days ahead of schedule too. Finally, to my shame, I remember an Indy radio station doing a parody song to R Kelly's song "Ignition" called "Hyperfixing." Things were...different back then.

[bmeiser]

Hyperfix I believe was just rehabilitating the existing bridges between Washington Street and the North Split. There was also some repaving and I think they added the third lane for eastbound I-70 at that point. The project went for something like 50, 60 days I think? I started after Memorial Day (always after the 500) and ended in late July or early August. Otherwise I don't remember traffic being too terrible, I guess with it taking place in the summer it made things better. And they also finished the project a few days ahead of schedule too. Finally, to my shame, I remember an Indy radio station doing a parody song to R Kelly's song "Ignition" called "Hyperfixing." Things were...different back then.

You're thinking of this project from 2013: https://www.in.gov/indot/files/SouthSplitII_PreviousProject.pdf

Hyperfix happened back in 2003: https://highways.dot.gov/public-roads/marchapril-2004/hyperfix-6570. This project also finished ahead of schedule.

I remember this project happening but I don't remember how it affected traffic, other than increasing traffic on 465. I was in high school on the south side at the time so it didn't really effect me.

[nwi_navigator_1181]

I-65 northbound traffic is now open at the split. Confirmed by the official Twitter and can be seen on the live cameras. As they said, you now keep right for I-65 northbound, and left for I-70 eastbound.

I-65 southbound shouldn't be that far off.

[cjw2001]

Fresh drone video just posted showing northbound I 65 open.  Looks like all the rain today has made it a challenge to get southbound opened, but they are still working on it as can be seen on the traffic cams.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsFeo7bMdfc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98WIiYsSEGw

[Great Lakes Roads]

As of around 3 am EST, SB I-65 through Indy is now open! We are now at around 85-90% complete on this project!

[silverback1065]

  Wonderful News! Now the only thing left is the C/D and the Penn exit. I bet those will be done by Memorial Day they're so close! After that they have a ton of city streets to fix that were damaged during construction including the Monon Trail.

[CtrlAltDel]

including the Monon Trail.

I had to read that twice. 

[FixThe74Sign]

I drove both north and south 65 through the split. Some thoughts...

The signage for the C/D exits on 65 south is horrible. When going south on 65, there are two signs. One simply says "Stay on 65 South for Local Exits", and then you pass another one that says "Stay on 65 South: Michigan, Ohio, Fletcher". There are no signs telling you what lane to be in to get to the C/D exits until you are actually at the C/D exit. If you follow the signs that say, "Stay on 65 South", you could be in the left lane thinking you are fine (since the signs for 65 south point you to the middle and left lane), and then without warning there is the C/D exit in the other lane. This could be better by having a sign that says "Michigan, Ohio, Fletcher, use middle lane" before you reach the split. Even with GPS, I can see this confusing people, as the GPS will probably say "stay left" and then immediately say "exit right". INDOT and bad signage...what else is new.

Lots of confused people going south on 65, trying to figure out how to stay south or go on 70 east. Many people crossing the gore point at the last minute.

The old configuration had the two lanes for 70 west quite suddenly drop to one lane through the north split. Now, the two lanes for 65 south drop to one lane through the north split, but there is good signage indicating that and more merge room.

70 west to 65 north use to have its right most lane exit only at Meridian/Penn. Now that that exit is permanently close, it has two lanes go through the entire interchange.

65 north through the north split used to be two lanes throughout the entire interchange. Now, it's right lane ends about 1/4 miles past the Meridian/Penn exit. 

Until the C/D exits open, there is going to be a major weaving problem on 65S/70W with people trying to get onto East St.

[silverback1065]

Interesting, I was wondering what the signage looked liked for sb. They used to advertise Exit 111 at the last Meridian St exit sign. I think the reason why they dropped the lane for 65 N instead of 70 is because 70 carries WAY more traffic through downtown than 65 does. I think the worst signage I've seen on an indiana interstate is for Exit 204 on 69 for 106th st. you get only 1 sign and that's the last one with the arrow pointing to the right  .  Good thing is 65 s will no longer back up to 21st st due to the delaware ramp causing weaving issues. I find it interesting that they didn't accommodate access to penn from 70, it looks like an easy thing to do, but I can only guess 2 reasons why: 1. they did a traffic count and found not many people used that ramp from 70 it was mostly 65 traffic. 2. it was a concession to not widen any further to the rethink 65/70 people.

[Moose]

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FRafaelSanchezNews%2Fposts%2Fpfbid02ER9ywszWjnj9utGSheJ8BUiWQfowMUz6NgUcgB2B72ZEefN6bh6vjPzZNaAekfTjl

https://fb.watch/kfP96CSJOM/

[Moose]

Fresh drone video just posted showing northbound I 65 open.  Looks like all the rain today has made it a challenge to get southbound opened, but they are still working on it as can be seen on the traffic cams.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsFeo7bMdfc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98WIiYsSEGw

First video shows CSX being the normal doofuses.. plenty of places to stop, and they stop a train downtown...

[cjw2001]

Lots of confused people going south on 65, trying to figure out how to stay south or go on 70 east. Many people crossing the gore point at the last minute.

viewable here: https://511in.org/@-86.14032,39.7859,16?show=incidents,normalCameras,trafficSpeeds,electronicSigns,stationsAlert,weatherWarningsAreaEvents,plowCameras,flooding#camera/5274/920710588

[silverback1065]

Fresh drone video just posted showing northbound I 65 open.  Looks like all the rain today has made it a challenge to get southbound opened, but they are still working on it as can be seen on the traffic cams.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsFeo7bMdfc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98WIiYsSEGw

First video shows CSX being the normal doofuses.. plenty of places to stop, and they stop a train downtown...

I wish that damn train would be routed around downtown 

[cjw2001]

New drone video that shows southbound I 65 open

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6Xur6ATOSg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsTu62LdufQ

[silverback1065]

So nice to have this mostly done. Interested to see how this fixes traffic in the area. won't judge that until all ramps are open though.

[cjw2001]

So nice to have this mostly done. Interested to see how this fixes traffic in the area. won't judge that until all ramps are open though.

Yesterday traffic wasn't looking good but that may have been mainly due to weather and the "new" factor.   Things appear to be smoother today.

I'm wondering how much of the bottleneck of the flyover ramp merge onto I 70 Eastbound will be improved when they finally get those lanes restriped into the final configuration.   Thinking they ran out of time this last weekend due to all the rain but hoping they finish that up ASAP.   Right now the flyover is operating with two lanes but looks like there is likely room for 3 once they finish restriping?