U.S. 31 Open In Hamilton County

U.S. 31 in Carmel reopened Tuesday night right on schedule.  The Indiana Department of Transportation had set a Thanksgiving deadline to reopen the highway says spokesman Nathan Riggs.

"It was very important that INDOT and its contractors met this deadline not only for holiday travel and the shopping season, but also for winter weather and just to maintain our reliability that we would do what we said and get this highway open before Thanksgiving," says Riggs. 

U.S. 31 between Old Meridian and 136th Street has been closed since April as part of the Major Moves project to upgrade the highway between South Bend and Indianapolis. 

Two lanes in both directions will be open on the stretch and two new interchanges have also been completed.  Originally INDOT planned to close the road in 2015 but says expediting the process reduced construction time by more than two months. 

The $350 million Hamilton County part of the project will upgrade a 13 miles of U.S. 31 between I-465 and State Road 38 and feature 11 new interchanges.  When completed in late 2015, mroe than 30 traffic signals will have been removed saving drivers about 30 minutes of travel time. 

Construction still continues along U.S. 31 in Hamilton County but no additional full closures are planned at this time.