INDIANA. -- Big changes are coming to one of the Midwest's most heavily traveled roadways.
The stretch of I-94 and 65 between Indiana and Illinois is getting some serious work done over the next 3 years.
While the project has just begun with some shoulder closures, within the next week or so, things are going to ramp up quickly.
The most heavily traveled roadway in the Hoosier State will be seeing some major renovations and improvements.
INDOT's project is expected to last into 2029, and hopes to incorporate the latest and greatest in highway technology
"We're going to have dynamic shoulder lanes, and dynamic lanes to be able to show which lanes are open ahead, so if there's a crash, you'll know that hey, the two left lanes ahead are closed, and you need to start getting over to the right, and we'll be able to warn people using that technology overhead, so we're really just trying to bring I-94 into 2026," said Cassandra Bajek, INDOT Northwest public relations director.
The project will cost around 40 million dollars to complete, with grant funding taking care of a portion of the cost.
"Which is really exciting when we can get grant funding for it, we don't normally have this happen for our projects, we don't have that many grant funded projects in our program, so for the flexor project to be one of those is really exciting for us," said Bajek.
This project is aimed at making one of the busiest roadways in the Midwest more efficient and making the experience for drivers safer and more streamlined.
"If you look at I-94 from a satellite view, you'll see that there are homes and businesses all the way up to the interstate, so we knew adding a lane to I-94 really wasn't feasible, both financially, and then also just because of the community impacts that would be had if we needed to uproot all of those homes and businesses, so with this project, we really had to get more creative," said Bajek.
Next week will see the beginning of ramp closures, and later this year, more lane closures and improvements to interchanges.