Closing of I-65 in Indiana, rerouting prompts worries

The Associated Press

2/27/2008

GARY, Ind. — Residents and business owners are worried about snarled traffic as a stretch of Interstate 65 is closed beginning Saturday for perhaps nine months for reconstruction work.

The project will leave drivers trying to find alternate routes with I-65 closed between the Indiana Toll Road and I-80/94 — cutting off a major route into and out of Chicago.

By closing the 1.5-mile stretch of I-65 down completely and completing the project in one construction season, state highway department officials expect to save more than $2.9 million compared to closing half the road at a time over two years.

“It’s going to affect (motorists) tremendously when they come into Gary,” Deputy Mayor Geraldine Tousant said. “It’s going to be out of your way; it’s going to cost you more money; it’s going to (mean) more gas in your car.”

The Indiana Department of Transportation has laid out nine approved detours, some of which will send drivers eight miles or more out of their way.

JL Shandy Transportation Inc. trucks ship steel coils and steel plate from northwestern Indiana’s mills and steel service centers to Detroit, Cincinnati and Louisville, Ky. Using detours will eat up time and fuel, as will waits at clogged ramps, raising costs for his company, company owner Jack Crotty said.

“It will cause problems for the steel industry,” he said. “And that’s what we do.”

Area businesses also are concerned about the $46 million project, which is scheduled for completion in November.

“Whatever they do, it will be awful,” said Ruth Best of Gary. “Because we will all be taking the same roads and those roads are not built for that.”