As the weather warms up, construction season kicks into a higher gear and crews expect to finish a large amount of the work on U.S. 31 by the fall. Officials from the Indiana Department of Transportation held a public forum at Carmel High School to allow Hamilton County residents the opportunity to ask any questions they have about the project.
In Carmel, this year should see road closures for construction limited to predominately from 116th Street to Interstate 465. INDOT spokesman Nathan Riggs said there will be a number of traffic shifts and reroutes to minimize impact.
In some cases, roads and intersections might be closed for approximately 60 days, such as 116th and Pennsylvania streets, which will be closed in August and September, 111th and Pennsylvania, which will be closed in April and May, and 106th Street, which will be close in portions in May and June.
“We don’t have any major impact long term closures, these are all short term,” said Chad Nierman of INDOT.
Currently, the city of Carmel has closed 131st Street and Main Street to make improvements along Main Street that will be necessarily given the higher volume of traffic expected from the new U.S. 31. Jeremy Kashman, city engineer for Carmel, said the improvement to the road will be very beneficial to the area and its economic corridor.
“In the middle of July, when we open this up, it’ll look like a completely different area,” he said.
In Westfield, the longest closure will occur at 191st Street under U.S. 31 which is currently closed through August and September. Also, 191st and Tomlinson Road is closed until July. There will be approximately 14 day road closures at 181st under U.S. 31 in July/August and 169th street under U.S. 31 in August/September.
Ed Rowland, of Westfield, said he attended because he was interested in finding out about the various closures because he lives near U.S. 31. He thinks when it’s complete it will make his commute so much easier.
Rowland said he appreciated the public forum, as opposed to a Web site, because of human interaction.
“It’s far easier to understand things when I can ask questions and interact with people,” he said.
Riggs said it’s important to include a public forum in addition to using newspaper articles, Web sites, Facebook and Twitter to alleviate any confusion motorists might have.
“It’s just another tool that we use because some people feel much more comfortable asking us questions,” he said.
Find out more
- www.us31hamiltoncounty.in.gov
- Text ROADS to 411247 for text updates
- Follow #US31Closure posts on Facebook at www.facebook.com/INDOTEastCentral or follow them on Twitter at @INDOT_ECentral.
