The Indiana Department of Transportation on Friday released a draft environmental impact statement for Section 6 of the Interstate 69 project, which would complete the highway between Martinsville and Interstate 465 in Indianapolis.
Construction of Section 6 would start where Section 5 leaves off at Liberty Church Road south of Martinsville. The draft impact statement released Friday puts the estimated cost of the 26.9-mile preferred route of Section 6 at approximately $1.5 billion. The new road would connect with Interstate 465 slightly west of the current Ind. 37/465 interchange, and 465 would be widened to five lanes from Mann Road to U.S. 31 to accommodate anticipated traffic from I-69, according to the draft EIS.
The preferred route generally follows the footprint of Ind. 37 north of Martinsville to Indianapolis. Between the end of Section 5 and the new I-69/465 interchange, there would be eight interchanges, 12 grade separations, and 17 roads would be closed, the document states.
One of the purposes of the project is to reduce peak-hour travel time, and the draft EIS estimates a savings of 11 minutes from Ind. 39 to downtown Indianapolis but only a three-minute savings to the Indianapolis airport. Other goals of the project include reducing traffic congestion on existing roadways, reducing the number of crashes in the highway corridor and supporting the growth of economic activity.
According to an INDOT news release, “INDOT will refine the preferred alternative based on public and agency input, and expects the Federal Highway Administration will issue a joint Final EIS (environmental impact study) and Record of Decision for Section 6 in the first quarter of 2018.”
“Essentially, what is going to happen is, we are going to have the public take a look at these maps, give us their feedback on where those overpasses are, interchanges. Once we get that feedback back, that is when we take those comments into consideration to see if we need to make any slight adjustments to the alignment,” said LaMar Holliday, a public involvement specialist with INDOT.