By Susan Orr
Indiana Business Journal
After 16 years of construction, the full stretch of Interstate 69 between Evansville and Indianapolis is set to open to traffic this week.
On Tuesday, the last part of the project—an interchange linking I-69 and I-465—is scheduled to open following a celebratory on-site event to mark the occasion. Gov. Eric Holcomb’s office announced Monday that Holcomb and his two predecessors, former governors Mike Pence and Mitch Daniels, will be at Tuesday’s event.
The interchange is also scheduled to open to traffic Tuesday—although the Indiana Department of Transportation says that construction at and near the interchange will continue through the end of this year.
I-69 spans 142 miles between Evansville and Indianapolis, with another eight miles of roadway specifically for the I-465 interchange, for a total project length of 150 miles.
The presence of Holcomb, Pence and Daniels at Tuesday’s event is a recognition of how long the $4 billion project has taken to complete.
Daniels was governor when construction on I-69 began in Evansville in July 2008. By the time the first three sections of the project were complete, from Evansville to the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division, in November 2012, Daniels was in his final months of office.
When the fourth section of I-69 opened between Crane and Bloomington, in November 2015, Pence had taken office. To mark the opening of that section—a major milestone that created the first-ever direct highway link between Evansville and Bloomington—Pence led a ceremonial caravan down that 27-mile stretch of interstate.
The sixth and final stretch of the project, between Martinsville and Indianapolis, began in early 2019. Work on the I-465 interchange began in 2022.
The stretch between Evansville and Bloomington was brand-new construction. Between Bloomington and Indianapolis, road crews upgraded what had been Indiana 37, transforming that stretch into I-69.
To build the new I-465 interchange, road crews built a new section of I-69 that diverges from Indiana 37’s current path just north of Edgewood Avenue. The new section of I-69 connects with I-465 via two flyover ramps west of the existing Indiana 37/Harding Street interchange.
