INDOT to close left-hand exit from I-65 to Lafayette Avenue

Gus Pearcy, The Lebanon Reporter, Ind.
·3 min read

Mar. 5—The first section of Interstate 65 through Indiana was built in Boone County between Royalton to the junction with U.S. 52 northwest of Lebanon. It opened in December of 1960.

On March 15, as part of a much larger project, the Indiana Department of Transportation will be closing the left-hand exit ramp from I-65 to Lafayette Avenue. This is a permanent closure. What happens next is still up in the air.

INDOT West Communications Director Debbie Calder said the main work will be to add a lane to I-65 from Ind. 32 to Ind. 47. The first phase of the project will restrict the interstate to one lane overnights beginning at 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 p.m. Friday through Sunday. The lanes will reopen by 6 a.m. each day.

Speed limits through the project area will be 55 mph during the day and 45 mph overnights.

Phase 1 is expected to last to mid-July. Construction of the added travel lane will continue through late 2021, then resume in March of 2022 through November.

Exit 141 to Lafayette Avenue will also be eliminated, according to Calder.

"In addition, as part of that project, INDOT has committed to replace the exit," Calder said. "The replacement is not expected to be built as a left exit but a right exit instead that will overpass I-65 and reconnect with Lafayette Avenue. This work is currently scheduled to begin prior to the completion of the added travel lanes project."

City Engineer Kevin Krulik said the ramp is dangerous and the closure is warranted. However, Lebanon would like to see a new northern exchange built farther north. Mayor Matt Gentry has expressed a desire for a new exit at County Road 300 North.

"Given the obvious safety concerns associated with the existing left exit, the limited traffic volumes in this area, and the lack of commercial uses along the Lafayette Avenue corridor, the City of Lebanon feels as though transportation resources would be better spent in the development of a new northern interchange, that would provide better access to the north side of Lebanon, better represent traffic patterns of today, and improve safety of the interstate system," Krulik wrote in an email to The Lebanon Reporter.

Krulik said he plans to meet with INDOT to discuss the closure and a new northern interchange next week.

Mike Lasley lives in the first home on Lafayette Avenue and said the ramp is very dangerous. Vehicles coming off the ramp at a high rate of speed make leaving his driveway dangerous. He's also had his mailbox mowed down several times over the five years he's lived next to it.

"Multiple times during the night or day we'd hear brakes being hit, horns being honked, people pulling out in front of each other," he said. "Once something happens on the interstate, all the semis and everything come toward that road. A lot of times it gets backed up."

He said he's seen many accidents too.

"We were always told that it would be closed down," Lasley said. "We were always looking forward to them closing it, but we didn't know if they were going to just abandon it. They've never kept it up."

INDOT is spending $83.7 million on the added-lane project.