HAMILTON COUNTY

Carmel braces for U.S. 31 snarl

Brian Eason
JacksonMS
A covered sign on March 31, 2014, announces U.S. 31 North construction that will start April 4 and close the thoroughfare in Carmel through at least October.

CARMEL — Sukhi Mann knows he's going to lose customers when U.S. 31 shuts down.

And on Friday, when the closure of Carmel's only major U.S. highway begins, he'll start to have an idea of how many.

Mann is a managing partner at Amber Indian Restaurant at 12510 N. Meridian St. off West Carmel Drive, ground zero for the eight months of construction that's about to displace 51,000 cars, snarling traffic and disrupting businesses along the corridor as customers weigh whether it's worth fighting gridlock and detours to get there.

"It's going to be very tough," Mann said, particularly for the first few weeks when people aren't sure how to get from place to place.

The Indiana Department of Transportation plans to close the road from Old Meridian Street to 136th Street until Thanksgiving, while crews convert the stop-and-go thoroughfare into a free-flowing highway, with exit ramps, overpasses and new roundabout interchanges instead of stoplights. U.S. 31 also will be reduced to one lane of traffic each way leading up to the construction beginning at 116th Street in the south and where it diverges from Keystone Parkway in the north.

The work is one phase of a $1.2 billion project ongoing since 2011 to turn U.S. 31 into a limited-access highway by removing 32 traffic lights between I-465 and South Bend, cutting commutes by as much as 30 minutes, according to transportation officials.

Keystone is the official detour, but INDOT officials expect about half of that traffic to be absorbed by smaller local roads, according to Carmel City Councilwoman Sue Finkam.

"There's no doubt it's going to be disruptive," Finkam said. "Keystone and 96th was already a busy, accident-prone intersection, and now we're going to dump 50 percent of U.S. 31 southbound traffic onto it."

Still, she says she's glad INDOT decided to shut down the highway rather than stagger the work over multiple years.

INDOT announced the closure in late February, rescheduling construction a year earlier than expected. And with just days to go, many business owners still aren't sure what to make of it. More traffic on Pennsylvania and Illinois could be a good thing, for some. But overall, congestion usually has the opposite effect.

Council President Eric Seidensticker recalled that construction on Keystone Parkway years earlier was "excruciatingly painful" for a car dealership in the area that suffered a drop in customers at its service center.

"It took them years to build back up to where they were," Seidensticker said.

Daniel Stein, manager of Zoups!, is predicting a rough few months. Sukie Dieu, manager of V Nails, says she isn't worried, but she is expecting a 10 percent drop in clientele.

Mann's primarily concerned about the lunch crowd — "they have limited time from 12 to 1 – they don't want to get stuck in traffic." But he's optimistic that business will recover when people get used to it; Amber Indian has developed a loyal customer base since the restaurant opened in 2006.

Others worry that a lengthy detour will send business to their competitors.

"No one's going to do it — they're just going to go to another cleaners," says Kayla Hoyd, store manager of Classic Cleaners. Customers already are asking Hoyd how to get there when the nearest intersection, Carmel Drive and U.S. 31, shuts down.

But she doesn't know what to tell them. "We don't know anything," she said.

INDOT officials insist the lack of knowledge hasn't been for a lack of outreach. Hundreds attended community forums on the closure in March, and many others received fliers and electronic newsletters about the closure. Information about specific intersections is available on a department website, www.US31closure.com..

"On this project in particular, I think our public outreach has been exceptional," said INDOT spokesman Nathan Riggs. The concerns leading up to the closure, he said, are fairly typical for a project of this size.

"Iguess the way our society operates, many people don't take in this information until it's imminent," Riggs said. "Until it gets to where we are now, people really start thinking, 'oh yeah, that's going to close this Friday.'"

Mann and Hoyd got fliers but didn't attend any of the sessions. But Hoyd is being proactive; already, she has tried a new route to get to work.

It took an extra 10 minutes — and that's without the additional traffic.

"It's a great situation," Hoyd said dryly. "I'll definitely enjoy it."

Call Star reporter Brian Eason at (317) 444-6129. Follow him on Twitter: @brianeason.

U.S. 31 closure

Starting Friday, INDOT plans to close U.S. 31 between Old Meridian Street and 136th Street through Thanksgiving to accelerate construction of an overpass at Carmel Drive and roundabout interchanges at Main Street and 136th Street.

The highway also will be cut to one lane of traffic each way leading up to the construction beginning at 116th Street in the south and Keystone Parkway in the north.

Some cross streets will be affected:

136th Street: Traffic can cross U.S. 31 at all times, to maintain access to St. Vincent Carmel Hospital.

131st/Main Street: The Main Street overpass will open in the fall.

126th/Carmel Drive: Traffic can cross using Carmel Drive until the Main Street overpass opens. However, the Carmel Drive intersection will be closed this weekend for preliminary work.

For more information, visit US31closure.com.

Source: Indiana Department of Transportation