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Safety concerns arise as drivers voice difficulty finding their lane on I-465

Posted at 10:05 PM, Jun 17, 2019
and last updated 2019-06-18 00:22:59-04

INDIANAPOLIS — If something feels off about your drive down I-465 on the city's east side, you're not the only one feeling that way.

Anita Hall reached out to RTV6 saying she is having trouble finding her lane.

"I said, 'This is an accident waiting to happen,'" Hall said.

Hall first noticed the problem this week.

"I was driving on back between Fishers and the east side quite a bit, and the first time I saw it, it was a little comical," she said.

She's talking about a stretch of southbound I-465 between the I-69 split and 56th Street that covers about three miles. Hall said the lane markings were off.

"Some were straight and then some would be jutted to the left and some would be jutted to the right," Hall said.

A spokeswoman for INDOT said those markings are actually stickers put in place by contractors that make up temporary lane lines during construction.

"I've never seen anything like that before," Hall said. "There was no rhyme or reason."

The standard for permanent lane markers is 30 feet of separation between each line, but the distance can be up to 50 feet for temporary lane markers.

"Wow, so every 50 feet versus every 30 feet," Hall said. "That's huge. That in itself was probably what was messing with my head."

A project manager for INDOT will check the stretch Tuesday to see if extra markers are necessary. The road is scheduled for painting permanent lines later this week, but rain could get in the way.

"I think any time they can eliminate confusion, we're eliminating accidents," Hall said.

An INDOT spokeswoman said construction in that area is ongoing, and they will ask contractors to place the temporary lines every 30 feet instead of 50 feet moving forward.

"You don't realize how used you get to it until you get something different," Hall said.