Get ready for an onslaught of Lloyd Expressway construction projects, which will be part of the Evansville driving experience through 2028.
Intersection changes, bridge replacements, and pavement resurfacings are planned from the highway’s western border with Posey County to nearly its eastern edge at Warrick County.
Traffic-impeding preconstruction activity, such as utility relocation, will start in mid-March. The April 8 total solar eclipse, however, is being treated like a holiday.
Evansville is in the eclipse’s path of totality, and with tens of thousands of people expected in the region and schools closed for the day, work will pause.
From midnight April 7 until sunrise on April 9, “barrels will be pushed back,” says Nicole Minton, public outreach manager with engineering firm Lochmueller Group and a Lloyd4U spokeswoman.
The overall timeline for specific Lloyd4U projects is flexible, but Minton says this much is known for sure: Motorists soon will notice preconstruction and then construction at the Lloyd’s intersections with Stockwell Road and Vann Avenue.
The Stockwell intersection is set to receive an eastbound displaced left turn and a westbound boulevard left turn, while at Vann, the option to turn left onto westbound Lloyd will be removed, and traffic signals will go away.
Other work is starting start soon on the highway’s western end.
Major interchange improvements are coming to Red Bank Road, where dual displaced left turn lanes are planned; and at Schutte Road, where signalized left turns will be installed for Lloyd traffic.
Smaller projects are set for the Lloyd intersections at Rosenberger Avenue, Boehne Camp Road, and University Parkway.
Once the Stockwell and Vann projects are finished, major changes will come to the Lloyd’s busy intersections at Burkhardt Road and Cross Pointe Boulevard. Dual displaced left turn lanes are to be added at both locations. Those two large projects are not expected to start until 2025.
Not all areas will experience traffic shifts at the same time, Minton says, but “there’s no getting around it — this is one we are going to struggle to live with for a bit. It’s going to cause delays. We urge people to go to the website and know when changes are happening.”
There’s also a Facebook page titled TheLloyd4U, and from the website, smartphone users can sign up to get text or emailed alerts about Lloyd construction.
The Indiana Department of Transportation is investing about $150 million on the various projects along the Lloyd Expressway, with the goal of making traffic flow more efficient and safer.
Traffic on the Lloyd will slow during the construction process, but the highway will never close.
“Essentially all of the traffic will move from one side of the facility or the other while we’re working on it,” Minton says. “We’ll always have one lane of traffic in all directions. The commitment is to not shut down any section at all.”
What project officials will encourage throughout the Lloyd construction, Minton says, is embracing what she calls a “zipper merge.” She says that means taking turns merging into the open lane of traffic, rather than all vehicles jamming into the open lane long before the closure.
The best way for motorists to get around during the process, she says, will be to consider traveling at off peak times, taking alternative routes while also monitoring Lloyd construction with the available resources.
