Lane closures on Indiana 51 in Lake Station begin Monday as the Indiana Department of Transportation’s $16 million bridge replacement project over Interstate 94 begins. The project also includes interstate modifications designed to ease exiting and entering the interstate.
An INDOT map shows the area affected by lane closures is north of Central Avenue to the Indiana Toll Road.
INDOT said Indiana 51 will be reduced to one lane in each direction through mid-November. Work will begin with the inside left lane closed in each direction and then switched to the outside right lanes closed around mid-October.
There will be shoulder closures on some of the ramps at this interchange, but all ramps will remain open and accessible.
INDOT said the upcoming closures are pre-work ahead of the actual bridge replacement over the interstate. There will be no restrictions in place after mid-November until work resumes in spring 2025.
This extensive bridge replacement project will be ongoing through 2026.
The contractor is contractor F.H. Paschen, S.N. Nielsen & Associates LLC.
INDOT spokeswoman Cassandra Bajek said the modification will be from a full cloverleaf to a partial cloverleaf interchange. The existing exit ramps from I-80/94 to Indiana 51 will be replaced with lighted intersections like I-94 at Indiana 249 in Portage.
“By eliminating the weaving that currently takes place under the bridge, we are increasing safety,” Bajek said. “We are also able to extend the acceleration lane to give drivers more time to merge onto I-80/94.”
In 2020, workers finally completed reconstruction of the Indiana 51 bridge over Burns Ditch. That INDOT project was originally slated to take about eight months and cost $8.7 million, the state said in 2017.
Unexpected soil conditions hampered the project which stretched the work from the eight-month projection to 28 months.
Bajek said the new bridges will require less maintenance and fewer taxpayer dollars to maintain.
Carole Carlson is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
