The Indiana Department of Transportation will close the busy span over Interstate 465 for five months instead of seven.

Getting onto and off of Interstate 69 at the 116th Street exit has long been a nail-biting experience, but traffic planners are about to propose reconstruction to unplug the bottleneck.

INDOT had already planned to replace the bridge as part of its “465/69 Northeast” rebuilding project. But the traffic-flow part of the plan drew the ire of some Castleton-area retailers.

The ongoing rehab of Interstate 465 will continue to be the biggest highway project in the metro area in 2011, but the rebuilding of an 11-mile segment on the west side could be all but finished by the end of the year—just when other significant highway projects will get under way in the metro area.

Bulldozers await an office complex that previously served as headquarters to August Mack Environmental. It'll be the first building demolished along Interstate 69 to make way for highway expansion.

INDOT plans to put a traffic signal on a well-known west-side shortcut from Interstate 465 southbound to I-70 East, a move stemming from the rebuilding of Sam Jones Expressway.

The lane opened Monday for eastbound traffic on I-465 from U.S. 31 (Meridian Street) to just past the Allisonville Road interchange.

Indy Connect will hold its first public forum Tuesday evening to begin the process of gathering public input on a regional transportation plan that proposes raising taxes to build a light-rail line, improve bus service and expand roadways.

A complex system of signs along Indianapolis' interstate highway system was pressed into action after a propane tanker exploded in October near I-465 and I-69.

Counties wanting to speed traffic among suburbs are building highways to avoid having to travel into Indianapolis. The result, a 100-mile outer loop beyond Interstate 465, won't be completed for years, and it won't be built to consistent standards, but it might help ease congestion.

Several landmark commercial properties fronting Interstate 465 on the northeast side could be in the path of bulldozers when the state begins adding lanes as early as 2012. Memos prepared by a consulting firm to the Indiana Department of Transportation go as far as estimating acquisition prices for buildings, including that of country station WFMS-FM 95.5 and other Cumulus Media stations at 6810 N. Shadeland Ave.

Whether it's southbound I-69 traffic backed up almost to Noblesville, or northbound I-465 traffic a parking lot all the way to 56th Street, the northeast highway system is grossly inadequate at peak hours. But a report issued last month by an INDOT consultant shows a radical, $600 million reconfiguration is in the works.