INDIANAPOLIS — A much-needed bridge project on the north side is now causing some dangerous situations because drivers aren’t following the new, temporary traffic pattern.
“It has happened to my husband and my mother and father live in the neighborhood and if you get on kind of our neighborhood next door app, I mean there's just so many different incidences of this happening, so it is I’m not the only person,” said Colleen Miller, a resident in the Admiral’s area.
She’s encouraging drivers to heed caution in Lawrence if they’re taking 86th Street as the city works to replace the bridge that connects Oaklandon road to the admiral’s neighborhoods.
“It's been a big concern for the neighborhood for years about repairing or replacing the bridge,” said Miller.
She said the bridge repair is much needed, but she says some drivers aren’t following the new traffic pattern while construction is underway.
According to the Indianapolis Department of Public Works, East 86th Street has become a one-way road and drivers can only head eastbound between Oaklandon Road and Promontory Road.
“People are putting convenience over safety,” said Colleen
The problem happening on 86th Street is that those drivers that are heading west are ignoring the 'Road Closed' sign and ignoring these barricades, basically causing a game of chicken between drivers who are doing the right thing and those who aren't.
“It happened at night and I was driving home, I’m heading east on 86th to turn into the neighborhood and someone came at me head-on you know I was able to kind of shift over to the side of the road and they went by me so that was the first incident and then the second incident happened just about a week ago it was during the day and the same situation you know, somebody coming head-on towards me,” said Miller.
She told me the signage and barricades make it clear the road is closed heading east.
“I feel like people know that they're not supposed to be doing it, so I really believe at this point it's not a matter of not knowing but it's a matter of not following,” said Miller.
In an email, a DPW representative told WRTV, “East 86th Street is clearly marked. While we strongly encourage everyone to heed and obey all posted detours around construction projects, Indy dew is unable to enforce inappropriate decision making by drivers.”
“I just think something really terrible is going to happen if somebody doesn't step in and have a greater presence and kind of stopping people from just disobeying the rules,” said Miller.
Working for you, WRTV reached out to IMPD to see how they are monitoring this area and if more can be done. They said oftentimes incidents like this get talked about on apps, like the Nextdoor app but aren’t reported to them. If you want to report a traffic concern to IMP click here.
