Six miles of I-70 closed in Indy today for beautification project

[rawmustard]

The portion of I-70 from the western junction with I-465 to the southern split with I-65 is closed from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. today in order to accomodate a massive planting project as part of Eli Lilly's annual global day of service. A liveblog is running at the link provided.

[74/171FAN]

What the heck has happened to us?   We've become more concerned in how "green" and beautiful the roads are over the fact that a major interstate has been closed for half a day(during the workweek for crying out loud) in a major metropolitan area just for a "beautification" project.  It's pathetic.

[RoadWarrior56]

What a P.C. piece of crap.  I would hate to be one of the commuters who uses that roadway on a regular basis.

[corco]

I don't see the problem here. It's one day. Beautification is a good thing, and to do the same project with nightly closures and paid employees working in the middle of the night instead of volunteers would have cost millions more. The fact that 9,000 people showed up on a weekday tells me that the people who actually live in the area are all for it.  Indianapolis just got a gift in exchange for one day of minor inconvenience.

This isn't some modern ultra pc-junk. We've been actively beautifying highways since Lady Bird Johnson, often at far greater expense to taxpayers because the labor was usually paid for out of tax coffers. While some revenue is lost here in lost time, I'd bet the cost savings is greater with free labor, and the economic benefits to the communities passed through of a pleasant looking highway are real.

If they were tearing down I-70 to build a park, then I'd understand the super-negative reaction (and I'd be right with you waving the pitchfork). But one day in a city with good alternate routes? Not a big deal.

[mightyace]

Wouldn't it have it made more sense to schedule it for say 9am to 3pm, thus avoiding rush hour?

[corco]

They needed a 12 hour chunk to make it worthwhile, and from what I've read the costs would have gone up massively with two 6-hour days.

[agentsteel53]

But one day in a city with good alternate routes? Not a big deal.

the alternate routes may be good, but they certainly aren't signed, ever since Indianapolis decided to take its US routes and toss them on the ring road, as opposed to maintaining downtown routings.

[mightyace]

They needed a 12 hour chunk to make it worthwhile, and from what I've read the costs would have gone up massively with two 6-hour days.

But, if INDOT was working on a project that required twelve hours of closure of I-70, would they be allowed to close it off over rush hour?  I think not.

Why is Eli Lilly so much more special than INDOT?

[corco]

But, if INDOT was working on a project that required twelve hours of closure of I-70, would they be allowed to close it off over rush hour?  I think not.

Why is Eli Lilly so much more special than INDOT?

Because INDOT employees are paid by the hour. We aren't giving the 9,000 Eli Lilly volunteers a dime. And I think they would- they essentially shut down I-70 for like a year from 2007-2008, including rushhour! Assuming the objective was to A) do this, B) cost the government a minimal amount of money, and C) maximize the number of volunteers (taking two days off from work is a bigger pain than one) to therefore maximize productivity, this was the only option.

As a general rule of thumb, I've always believed that when 9,000 (!) local residents come out to do pretty hard work for free, then they apparently really want something done in their community- that's a full 1% of the city of Indianapolis, which is a ridiculously large amount all things considered (more than half the people probably never use that road and don't care either way, half of the remaining probably didn't even know about it until yesterday, a lot of people can't just take a day off work, landscaping itself is not easy work which leaves young to middle-aged able bodied people to do it, etc)  . A turnout of 9,000 isn't some small radical minority- I'd guess that means the majority of people living in that area are in favor of the project, but most folks have lives and can't. Let them do it.

the alternate routes may be good, but they certainly aren't signed, ever since Indianapolis decided to take its US routes and toss them on the ring road, as opposed to maintaining downtown routings.

True, however that chunk of I-70 was closed for a really long time recently, so the vast majority of drivers likely are already familiar and comfortable with alternate routes.

[froggie]

corco beat me to it...there was precedent:  the I-65/70 commons was shut down completely for several months some years ago for a full reconstruction.  Then more recently, I-70 on the east side was shut down on each side for about 6 months each for a similar reconstruction.  Compared to those shutdowns, this was a minor speedbump.

[Alps]

If I found out this were happening to a major highway in NJ/NYC, I would grit my teeth and bear it for a day, because I'd love to come see the fruits of the labor the next day, and I bet a lot of people would feel the same.  Highways just aren't beautiful very often.  I really don't understand this negative reaction.

[74/171FAN]

Personally I would not mind if they did this on a weekend when traffic would not have been affected that much

[tdindy88]

Regardless, since it is now over, this is more or less moot. Twelve hours of I-70 being closed on the Westside and the world is still standing tonight. As for the highway project itself, I will look forward to see what was done in the coming months and how it will look next spring when these plants come to life.

mute = unable to speak, silent.  moot = rendered trivial.

[Alps]

Personally I would not mind if they did this on a weekend when traffic would not have been affected that much

People like to do other things on their weekends, not to mention the DOT isn't around on weekends (for the most part).  Nice thought.

[agentsteel53]

People like to do other things on their weekends, not to mention the DOT isn't around on weekends (for the most part).  Nice thought.

personally, I'd like to drive I-70 on my weekend... so if I got to Indy and it was blocked off, I'd shit someone.

[mobilene]

FWIW, all the news accounts I saw/heard yesterday (I'm in Indy) reported that traffic moved reasonably well around the shutdown. Slow, but reasonably well. My guess is that 5 years from now nobody slowed down by this shutdown will remember it.  jim

[wh15395]

Just wondered if anyone else has driven on I-70 where the shutdown happened and what you think of it? I was on it today and wasn't all to impressed, although it's better than before. I kept getting the impression that maybe 15 years from now when the trees are grown that it will look nice.

[rawmustard]

Just wondered if anyone else has driven on I-70 where the shutdown happened and what you think of it? I was on it today and wasn't all to impressed, although it's better than before. I kept getting the impression that maybe 15 years from now when the trees are grown that it will look nice.

I drove the stretch coming back from Indy on Monday; it looks quite impressive knowing all of the planting was done in an under 12-hour stretch. Of course, as mentioned upthread, we won't really get to see the results until next spring when all the new plantings will have a full bloom.