Carmel Launches #31Bites

Construction on U.S. 31 in Hamilton County is scheduled to be completed in November.

But, businesses say the project is hurting their bottom line.

Thursday, Carmel’s Mayor launched a campaign to encourage people to look past the construction hassles and shop locally.

The project is to turn U.S. 31 into an interstate from 96th Street in Carmel north to U.S. 20 near South Bend.

"We know that you have to have good infrastructure, good roads to move people and commerce around," said Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard.  "The state will be better off because of this project.  It's just that there is a lot of pain during the construction period."

He can’t measure how much money the project has cost local businesses, but says any construction often leads to challenges.

"Certainly people are impacted.  Businesses are impacted during the construction project and the city wanted to draw attention to them and ask for the communities help by patronizing those businesses until the project is completed," said Brainard. 

The campaign is called #31Bites.

Brainard says it’s designed to inspire residents to make 31 visits over 31 days in August to local restaurants and shops along the corridor from 96th Street to 146th Street.

"No one likes road construction.  It impacts daily commutes.  It's noisy.  It takes longer to get places.  We all know that," said Brainard.  "As a community, if we can work together, and help those businesses that are impacted, they will be better off."

The closed section of U.S. 31 will reopen to traffic before Thanksgiving and Brainard believes business will recoup what they’ve lost during construction within months after the work is completed.