Public meeting on I-65 widening

A public information meeting will be conducted this month on the $143 million I-65 Southeast Indiana Project.

The public can learn more about the project during a one-hour meeting that starts at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 21 at the Holiday Inn Express, 249 N. Sandy Creek Drive, Seymour.

This Indiana Department of Transportation project includes reconstruction of a 14.25-mile stretch of two-lane I-65 travel, being widened to three lanes for northbound and southbound traffic between U.S. 50 in Seymour and State Road 58 in Walesboro. Resurfacing will be done from State Road 58 (Exit 64) to the State Road 46 exchange (Exit 68) in Columbus.

The third lane will be added in the median, which means no new right-of-way will have to be purchased, INDOT project manager Whitney Carlin said.

State Road 58 was chosen as the northern tip of the project because nearly 50 percent of all traffic at the Walesboro-Ogilville exit consists of heavy trucks, causing more rapid deterioration of roadway than normal for interstates, project consultant Bill Denhardt said.

Construction for the two-and-a-half-year project will start at Exit 64 this spring and move south until it ends at U.S. 50 in Seymour in 2020.

People who have questions on the I-65 project are invited to attend the meeting.