Interstate 69 in Indiana

Interstate 69 or I -69 is an Interstate Highway in the U.S. state of Indiana. The highway forms a diagonal north-south route through the state, running from the Kentucky border at Evansville to Martinsville, as well as a second section from capital Indianapolis via Fort Wayne to the Michigan border at Jamestown. The route is 433 kilometers long.

• Topschoolsoflaw: State overview and brief history of Indiana, including its geography and popular cities.

Travel directions

I-69 south of Bloomington.

I-69 near Muncie.

Kentucky – Indianapolis

Interstate 69 begins at Evansville on the Ohio River, which forms the border with Kentucky. Interstate 69 in Kentucky runs through the west of the state toward Memphis. The Evansville bypass was originally numbered Interstate 164. North of Evansville it crosses Interstate 64, after which the 2×2 lane highway heads north and slowly bends slightly to the east. There are no larger towns on this part of the route. I-69 runs mostly through rolling rural areas, with some higher hills to the east. After Crane, the highway heads into the wooded hills and continues east-west for a bit before turning north again. I-69 then runs along the western edge of the university town of Bloomington. The highway leads north through wooded and slightly hilly areas, where the highway ends at Martinsville.

• thembaprograms: Geography information of Indiana, including animals and plants. Also covers brief history and major cities of the state.

Indianapolis – Michigan

Interstate 69 begins again on the northeast side of Indianapolis, at an interchange with Interstate 465, Indianapolis’ beltway. The highway initially has 2×3 lanes and you still have to pass through the outer suburbs. At the Fishers suburb, the road narrows to 2×2 lanes. The motorway then temporarily follows a due east direction. This lasts until Anderson, a town of 60,000 people, after which I-69 turns north. You then pass Muncie, a town of 67,000 inhabitants. On the north side of Muncie one crosses the US 35, which runs to Richmond in the southeast. It then proceeds through the plains and agricultural areas of northern Indiana. At Gas City, US 35 turns off again, which runs to Kokomo and Michigan City, as a diagonal axis through Indiana. The exits in this area are usually at some distance from each other. The intersecting roads consist mainly of regional state routes. Small rivers are also occasionally crossed. However, the landscape is quite monotonous.

After 150 kilometers you reach the city of Fort Wayne. This city has 252,000 inhabitants and is the second largest city in Indiana. The first one crosses Interstate 469, which forms a bypass around the east side of the city. I-69 goes along the west side. One then crosses US 24, which runs from Logansport in central Indiana to Ohio. One passes primarily through the western suburbs of Fort Wayne. The highway has 2×3 lanes here. On the north side of Fort Wayne, you pass a trailer park. They also cross the US 27, which comes from Richmond and merges with I-69. On the north side of Fort Wayne, Interstate 469 is crossed again.

You then leave the small agglomeration and return to the countryside. At Waterloo one crosses US 6, the road from Chicago to Toledo, more or less parallel to Interstate 80 and Interstate 90. Not far afterwards, near the town of Angola, one crosses the Interstates, which run from Chicago and South Bend to Toledo and Cleveland. Shortly afterwards, at Jamestown, they cross the border into Michigan. Interstate 69 in Michigan then continues to Lansing and Port Huron.

History

As a diagonal route, I-69 had no clear predecessor. On the original stretch of I-69 in Indiana, the route was only north of Fort Wayne parallel to a US Highway, US 27.

Northern Indiana

The first section of I-69 to go under construction was the Fort Wayne bypass, which opened in 1963. Shortly thereafter, construction began on a long section in the Anderson, Muncie and Marion area, which opened circa 1965. Construction progressed quickly after that, with long stretches of I-69 opening in Northeast Indiana in 1966/1967 and completing the highway to the Michigan state border in 1968. The last part opened about 1972 directly from the Indianapolis ring road. This completed the original I-69 from Indianapolis to the Michigan border within 10 years.

In 2002, I-69 was widened through Fort Wayne. In 2016 and 2017, I-69 on the northeast side of Indianapolis between Exit 205 and Exit 218 was widened from 2×2 to 2×3 lanes. The project cost $79 million. Between 2018 and 2019, an additional 12 miles around Anderson was widened to 2×3 lanes as far as Daleville.

Southern Indiana

Following the example of the Indiana Toll Road, the construction of I-69 between Evansville and Indianapolis was originally planned as the Southern Indiana Toll Road. However, this plan was very unpopular and financially unfeasible as a toll road, so in late 2006 it was decided to build I-69 as a toll-free Interstate Highway in southern Indiana. On September 29, 2009, the first 2 miles from I-64 opened north to State Route 68, and on November 19, 2012, a much larger opening of 108 miles to Crane, the largest road opening in the United States since the 1970s, followed. The highway has since been extended to the south side of Bloomington, a 43-kilometer stretch that opened to traffic on December 9, 2015.

The existing State Route 37 around Bloomington has been upgraded to I-69. This was already a semi-level grade 2×2 divided highway. In 2016, it was decided to extend I-69 to I-465 in Indianapolis over the existing State Route 37. The section between Bloomington and Martinsville started construction in 2014, opening was originally planned for October 2016 and has been delayed several times, and was finally commissioned in September 2018. This section was 34 kilometers long and cost $325 million. On this section, the existing 2×2 divided highway has been expanded into a freeway through the construction of parallel roads and grade-separated intersections.

Interstate 164

The I-164 was already approved in 1968, and was supposed to provide better access to the southern city of Evansville. The highway was only opened in 1991. In November 2014, I-164 was renumbered as Interstate 69.

Opening history

Future

I-69 at Fort Wayne.

Evansville

A new bridge over the Ohio River is planned at Evansville. This will be a toll road. In January 2021, the route of the future river crossing was determined.

Martinsville – Indianapolis

The phase between Martinsville and Indianapolis was originally to be developed as a PPP, but Spanish developer Isolux Corsan went bankrupt in 2017, after which the state of Indiana took over the project. This part is estimated to cost $1.5 billion. $600 million was allocated in 2018 to accelerate the completion of this trajectory from 2027 to mid-2024 ^. Preparatory work began in March 2019. The Martinsville passage was first opened on December 20, 2021, this was a reconstruction of the existing State Route 37. In January 2022, the section between Martinsville and Bargersville became operational taken. This was an upgrade of the existing State Route 37 which already had 2×2 lanes. On June 1, 2022, approximately 2 miles from I-69 opened in southern Indianapolis. On September 15, 2022, the junction with 144 State Road opened at Bargersville. This continued on I-69 until an intersection with Smith Valley Road. The entire project up to Indianapolis is to be completed by the end of 2024.

Copy numbering

The exit numbering from the northern part of Indianapolis to the Michigan state line has been adjusted. In fact, the exit numbers should be increased by 184 miles, but for the sake of clarity, the exit numbers are increased by 200, so exit 110 has become exit 310. The new and old numbers will be displayed side by side for a while.

Traffic intensities

Every day, 21,000 to 27,000 vehicles drive past Evansville, dropping to 18,000 vehicles north of the I-64 interchange. Further north, there are about 10,000 vehicles per day, dropping to 7,000 vehicles in the Washington area and then rising again to 11,000 vehicles south of Bloomington.

The beginning of the highway on the northeast side of Indianapolis has 158,000 vehicles per day, dropping to 57,000 on the metropolitan fringe, 50,000 at Anderson and 31,000 at Muncie. Further north, this drops to about 24,000 vehicles, and up to 76,000 at Fort Wayne. About 19,000 vehicles cross the Michigan border every day.

Lane Configuration