INDIANAPOLIS – Construction crews are nearing some major milestones as INDOT approaches a year and a half of work on its ‘Clear Path 465′ project.

The effort redesigns and reconstructs the I-465 and I-69 corridor. It kicked off back in April 2022 in order to help reduce traffic in an already congested area and help keep up with continued growth on the northeast side that has taken place over the last five to 10 years.

“Really in that year and a half it’s been a lot of moving of dirt, a lot of maintaining of traffic and shifting traffic,” described INDOT Public Relations Director Kyleigh Cramer.

Foundations are now starting to take shape as each pour of concrete puts crews one step closer to reconfiguring one of the city’s busiest corridors.

“[Clear Path 465] really accommodates the growth we’re seeing here in Indiana and making sure our roads are up to date, they’re safe and they’re efficient as well,” Cramer said.

Some 120,000 drivers now fill the lanes of I-69 and I-465 each day. That’s why the project calls for replacing pavement, constructing 14 new bridges, rehabilitating two current bridges, building new ramp lanes, adding travel lanes, modifying interchanges and other maintenance work. All of which strives to reduce traffic and make the area safer in the long run.

“It’s going to make for a safer merging system and a safer way for residents to get around, especially during those peak hours of rush hour,” Cramer said.

INDOT is set to complete its first deck pour of the project early Tuesday morning. That means crews will be filling in an overpass with concrete. This particular overpass will connect I-69 South to I-465 West. INDOT is hoping to open the ramp to drivers by the end of the year, marking a major milestone of the project.

“There’s going to be some flipping and movement in the lanes of traffic, and that’s going to be a lot of education,” described INDOT Project Manager Brian Shattuck.

Shattuck is one of the many brains behind the construction. The education he is referring to is the fact drivers will eventually need to adjust to new patterns, such as using the right lanes to go to I-465 West instead of I-465 South like you would now.

Another major change will be how drivers get to Binford Boulevard. It will soon have its own exit ramp instead of being directly connected.

“Now you’re going to make all those decisions back at the ramp at 82^nd street and that pulls Binford basically from the decision-making out away from the interstate to get rid of the weave and get the local traffic off the interstate,” Shattuck described.

There is still plenty of work to be finished in the meantime. INDOT said the effort is about 25% complete right now. The entire project is not expected to be finished until the end of 2025.

On the south side of the city, drivers are also dealing with additional work on I-465 as a part of INDOT’s “Finish Line” project. That effort is expected to be done by the end of 2024.