U.S. Route 31 in Indiana

This article is about the section of U.S. Route 31 in Indiana. For the entire route, see U.S. Route 31.

U.S. Route 31
<mapframe frameless="1" width="290" height="290" align="center">{{Wikipedia:Map data/Wikipedia KML/U.S. Route 31 in Indiana}}</mapframe> US 31 highlighted in red
Route information
Maintained by INDOT
Length:	266.02 mi (428.12 km)
Existed:	October 1, 1926 – present
Major junctions
South end:	US 31 at Kentucky state line
	I-65 in Jeffersonville I-65 in Crothersville I-65 in Taylorsville I-74 / I-465 / US 36 / US 40 / SR 37 / SR 67 in Indianapolis I-65 in Indianapolis I-74 / US 421 in Indianapolis I-70 in Indianapolis I-69 / SR 37 in Indianapolis I-465 / US 52 / US 421 in Carmel / / Indiana Toll Road in South Bend
North end:	US 31 at Michigan state line
Location
Counties:	Clark, Scott, Jackson, Bartholomew, Johnson, Marion, Hamilton, Tipton, Howard, Miami, Fulton, Marshall, St. Joseph
Highway system
United States Numbered Highways List Bannered Divided Replaced Indiana State Roads Interstate US State Former ← US 30 SR 32 →

U.S. Route 31 (US 31) is a part of the United States Numbered Highway System that runs from Spanish Fort, Alabama, to Mackinaw City, Michigan. It enters the U.S. state of Indiana via the George Rogers Clark Memorial Bridge between Louisville, Kentucky, and Clarksville, Indiana. The 266.02 miles (428.12 km) of US 31 that lie within Indiana serve as a major conduit. Some of the highway is listed on the National Highway System. Various sections are rural two-lane highway and urbanized four- or six-lane divided expressway. The northernmost community along the highway is South Bend near the Michigan state line.

US 31 was first designated as a US Highway in October 1926. A northern section (from Rochester to South Bend) and a far southern section (on old US 31W into Louisville on the K&I Bridge) of the highway originally served as part of the Dixie Highway. US 31 was the Jackson Highway from Indianapolis to Seymour. US 31 replaced the original State Road 1 (SR 1) designation of the highway which dated back to the formation of the Indiana State Road system. SR 1 ran from Clarksville through Indianapolis to South Bend and ended at the Michigan state line.

Route description

Only the segment of US 31 that is north of Indianapolis is included as a part of the National Highway System (NHS). The NHS is a network of highways that are identified as being most important for the economy, mobility and defense of the nation. The highway is maintained by the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) like all other U.S. Routes in the state. The department tracks the traffic volumes along all state highways as a part of its maintenance responsibilities using a metric called average annual daily traffic (AADT). This measurement is a calculation of the traffic level along a segment of roadway for any average day of the year. In 2010, INDOT figured that lowest traffic levels were the 3,690 personal vehicles and 160 commercial vehicles that used the highway daily near Memphis. The peak traffic volume was 168,770 personal vehicles and 18,090 commercial vehicles along the section of US 31 concurrent with Interstate 465 (I–465).

Jeffersonville to Columbus

US 31 overlaps I-65 in Jeffersonville, after crossing the George Rogers Clark Memorial Bridge from Kentucky. It then diverges as the access frontage lanes before splitting off north of Jeffersonville at Clarksville and proceeding to Indianapolis. US 31 was widened to two lanes in both directions for its length through Columbus in the early 2000s.

Columbus to Indianapolis

At I-465 on the south side of Indianapolis, US 31 is routed onto I-465 on the east side of the city. This is the closest approach the highway makes to downtown Indianapolis. Previously the northbound route of the highway through Indianapolis was on East Street, Madison Avenue, Delaware Street, North Street, and onto Meridian Street; southbound was on Meridian Street, North Street, Pennsylvania Street, Madison Avenue, and onto East Street.

Indianapolis to Michigan

US 31 exits I-465 (coincidentally at exit 31) in Carmel, and continues northward as a freeway through Westfield. North of SR 38, it reverts to a divided highway until reaching the Kokomo area, where it again becomes a full freeway to bypass that city to the east. North of the Kokomo area US 31 again becomes a rural divided highway, which skirts Peru, Rochester, and Plymouth. At US 30 east of Plymouth, US 31 becomes a freeway again and remains so for the rest of its journey in the state. After bypassing Lakeville to the east, US 31 approaches South Bend. There the route converges with US 20 (St. Joseph Valley Parkway) and proceeds west and then north to bypass South Bend. After US 20 splits off to the west near the South Bend Airport, US 31 has an interchange with the Indiana Toll Road (I-80/I-90) before proceeding north into Michigan.

History

US 31 was signed into law by the Governor on March 7, 1917, as Main Market Highway 1, and signs were installed on June 1 of that year. The name was changed to State Road 1 within a year when Indiana began the state road system. By 1924, most of the route was paved, leaving only from Columbus to Franklin and from Peru to Plymouth that was unpaved. On October 1, 1926, US 31 was designated along what was SR 1 at the time.

In the late 2000s, INDOT began a process of converting US 31 to Interstate Highway standards from South Bend to Indianapolis. Three projects were completed in the early 2010s: an upgrade of the road from I-465 in Indianapolis to SR 38 north of Westfield, a new 14-mile (23 km) freeway bypass of Kokomo, and a new freeway segment from Plymouth to South Bend, which was constructed largely on a new alignment. A portion of the Plymouth–South Bend section was dedicated as the Richard W. Mangus Memorial Highway, in honor of the local state representative who supported the freeway's construction, at the ribbon-cutting ceremony on August 27. The entirety of the former segment of US 31 bypassed by the freeway segment in Kokomo and a portion of the one bypassed between Plymouth and South Bend were designated as SR 931.

Future

The remaining 78 miles (126 km) of US 31 between South Bend and Indianapolis is gradually being converted to a limited access highway without traffic signals, starting with an interchange at SR 28 in Tipton County which opened in November 2016. As of 2018, there were six traffic signals left between Indianapolis and South Bend, and a program introduced by Governor Eric Holcomb in September 2018 proposed to remove four of those. All six signals are expected to be removed by 2026.

The approximately 20-mile (32 km) stretch of US 31 between SR 38 in Hamilton County and SR 931 in Tipton County, south of Kokomo, was planned to be converted to freeway, with estimated completion in 2025. However, after the state determined that the original plans would severely limit access within Tipton County, those upgrades were removed from consideration until further study could be completed and these issues mitigated. Current upgrade plans are only slated for Hamilton County.

Major intersections

County	Location	mi	km	Exit	Destinations	Notes
Ohio River		0.00	0.00		US 31 south – Louisville	Continuation into Kentucky
					Clark Memorial Bridge; Indiana–Kentucky line
Clark	Jeffersonville				Court Avenue	Interchange; northbound exit and southbound entrance; entrance ramp includes direct entrance from Missouri Avenue
					I-65 south (Toll Bridge) – Louisville	I-65 exit 1; US 31 serves as service drives for freeway through I-65 exit 4
					6th Street, Court Avenue	Interchange; southbound exit and northbound entrance
			10th Street		Interchange; no northbound exit
	Clarksville				Stansifer Avenue	Partial interchange; at-grade intersection northbound, exit and entrance southbound
		1.51	2.43		Brown's Station Way – New Albany	Interchange; northbound exit and southbound entrance; former SR 62
	Jeffersonville Township				Kopp Lane	Southbound exit only
		3.71	5.97		I-65 north – Indianapolis	I-65 exit 4
		6.16	9.91		SR 60 west – Salem	Eastern end of SR 60
	Henryville	19.58	31.51		SR 160 – Salem, Charlestown
Scott	Vienna Township	27.19	43.76		SR 356 east – Lexington	Western end of SR 356
	Scottsburg	29.76	47.89		SR 56 – Salem, Hanover
	Austin	34.25	55.12		SR 256 – Madison
Jackson	Crothersville	37.14– 37.30	59.77– 60.03		I-65 – Indianapolis, Louisville	Exit 36 on I-65
		42.07	67.71		SR 250 – Brownstown
	Seymour	50.42	81.14		US 50 – Seymour, North Vernon
Bartholomew	Columbus	64.86	104.38		SR 7 – Columbus, North Vernon
		65.28	105.06		SR 46 – Columbus, Greensburg
	Taylorsville	77.13– 77.60	124.13– 124.89		I-65 – Indianapolis, Louisville	Exit 76 on I-65
Johnson	Edinburgh	81.39	130.98		SR 252 east – Edinburgh	Southern end of SR 252 concurrency
	Blue River Township	85.11	136.97		SR 252 west – Martinsville	Northern end of SR 252 concurrency
	Franklin				Jefferson Street – Fairgrounds, Franklin College	To SR 44; serves Johnson Memorial Hospital
Marion	Indianapolis				SR 135 south (Thompson Road)
		107.17	172.47		I-465 / I-74 / US 36 / US 40 west / SR 37 / SR 67 south	South end of freeway section; southern end of I-465/I-74/US 36/US 40/SR 37/SR 67 concurrencies; exit 2B on I-465; future southern end of I-69 concurrency
				2A	East Street north	Exit numbers follow I-465; no northbound entrance; no exit number northbound
				53	I-65 – Indianapolis, Louisville	Exit 106 on I-65
			52	Emerson Avenue
	Indianapolis			49	I-74 east (US 421 south) /  – Cincinnati	Northern end of I-74 concurrency; southern end of US 421 concurrency
				48	Shadeland Avenue	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
				47	US 52 east (Brookville Road) – Cincinnati	Northern end of US 52 concurrency
				46	US 40 east (Washington Street) – Dayton	Northern end of US 40 concurrency
				44	I-70 /  – Indianapolis, Dayton	Signed as exits 44A (east) & 44B (west) northbound; I-70 east exit 89, west exit 90; Shadeland Avenue not signed northbound
			42	US 36 east / SR 67 north (Pendleton Pike)	Northern end of US 36/SR 67 concurrency
			40	Shadeland Avenue / 56th Street
	Indianapolis			37A	I-69 / SR 37 north – Fort Wayne	Northern end of SR 37 concurrency; current southern terminus of I-69 (future northern end of concurrency); exit 200 on I-69 south
		37B	Binford Boulevard – Indianapolis	Southbound exit and northbound entrance; former SR 37 south
				35	Allisonville Road	Single-point urban interchange
				33	Keystone Avenue – Carmel	Former SR 431
Hamilton	Carmel			123	I-465 / US 52 west / US 421 north – Indianapolis	Exit numbers follow US 31; no exit number northbound; northern ends of I-465/US 52/US 421 concurrencies; exit 31 on I-465
				—	Meridian Street south to Downtown	Left exit and entrances; former US 31 south
				124	106th Street	Roundabout exit; no exit number northbound
				125	116th Street	Roundabout exit
				126	Old Meridian Street	Northbound exit only
				127	Main Street	Roundabout exit
				128	136th Street	Roundabout exit
	137.60	221.45	129B	Keystone Pkwy Rangeline Road, Clay Terrace Boulevard	Northern terminus of Keystone Parkway; southbound exit and northbound entrance
	129A	146th Street, 151st Street	City line at 146th Street
	Westfield			131	161st Street	Roundabout exit
		140.65	226.35	132	SR 32 (Main Street) – Lebanon, Noblesville
				134	191st Street	Roundabout exit
		144.26	232.16	136	SR 38 (Sheridan Road) – Sheridan, Noblesville	Northern end of freeway
	Bakers Corner			138	236th Street	Under construction (2021) tight diamond roundabout interchange
	Adams Township			142	276th Street	Planned folded diamond interchange (loops in NW and SE quadrants) - construction to begin in Fiscal Year 2022
Tipton	Jefferson Township	156.72	252.22	148	SR 28 – Frankfort, Tipton, Elwood	Rounabout interchange; opened November 2016
				156	SR 931 north – Kokomo	South end of freeway; southern terminus of SR 931; northbound exit and southbound entrance
Howard	Oakford	166.58	268.08	158	SR 26 – Hartford City, Lafayette
	Taylor Township			161	E. Boulevard Street (County Road 100S)
	Darrough Chapel	170.91	275.05	162	US 35 south (Markland Avenue) / SR 22 – Kokomo, Gas City	Southern end of US 35 concurrency
			165	Touby Pike
	Howard Township	175.52	282.47	166	US 35 north – Logansport, La Porte, Michigan City	Northern end of US 35 concurrency; northbound exit and southbound entrance
			167	SR 931 south – Kokomo	Northern terminus of SR 931; southbound exit and northbound entrance; northern end of freeway
Miami	Deer Creek Township	178.50	287.27		SR 18 – Galveston, Marion	To be converted into interchange
	Pipe Creek Township	183.73	295.68		SR 218 east – Bunker Hill	Southern end of SR 218 concurrency
		184.83	297.46		SR 218 west – Walton	Northern end of SR 218 concurrency
					Bus. US 31 north – Peru	Southern terminus of Bus. US 31; to be converted into interchange
	[[Peru Township, {{{ctdab}}} County, Indiana|Peru Township]]				Logansport Road (Bus. US 24) – Peru	Interchange via connector road
		190.96– 191.71	307.32– 308.53		US 24 east – Peru, Fort Wayne	Cloverleaf interchange
		US 24 west – Logansport
	197.88	318.46	SR 16 – Denver
Fulton	Rochester	211.58– 212.36	340.51– 341.76		SR 25 (Main Street) – Rochester, Logansport	Diamond interchange; to SR 14
Fulton–Marshall county line	221.37	356.26	SR 110 – Mentone
Marshall	Argos	226.08	363.84		SR 10 (Indiana Avenue) – Culver, Argos	To be converted into interchange
	Plymouth
		233.67– 234.17	376.06– 376.86	225	US 30 – Valparaiso, Warsaw	South end of freeway; signed as exits 225A (east) and 225B (west)
				228	Veterans Parkway	7th Road to the east
	La Paz	241.27	388.29	233	US 6 – Walkerton, Bremen
St. Joseph	Lakeville	247.66	398.57	239	SR 4 west (Pierce Road) – La Porte	Eastern end of the western section SR 4
	South Bend			245	Kern Road
		253.94	408.68	246A	US 20 east (St. Joseph Valley Parkway east) – Elkhart	Southbound left entrance (via Bus. US 31) and northbound exit
		—	Michigan Street (Bus. US 31 north)	Southern terminus of Bus. US 31; no direct southbound exit; Bus. US 31 exit 246B; serves Memorial Hospital of South Bend
		—	US 20 east (St. Joseph Valley Parkway east) – Mishawaka, Elkhart	Southern end of US 20 concurrency; southbound left exit and northbound left entrance
				—	SR 23 – North Liberty, South Bend
	Portage Township			—	Mayflower Road	No northbound exit to southbound Mayflower Road or southbound entrance from northbound Mayflower Road
				—	South Bend
		—	SR 2 west – La Porte	Eastern terminus of SR 2
	South Bend	262.24	422.03	—	South Bend	Serves South Bend International Airport
		—	US 20 west – Michigan City	Northern end of US 20 concurrency
		263.43– 263.60	423.95– 424.22	—	Nimtz Parkway	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
		—	Indiana Toll Road / I-80 / I-90	Exit 72 on the ITR
		—	Nimtz Parkway	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
				—	Bus. US 31 south (Cleveland Road) /	Northern terminus of Bus. US 31
		266.02	428.12		US 31 north (St. Joseph Valley Parkway) – Niles	Continuation into Michigan
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi       Concurrency terminus       Incomplete access       Tolled       Unopened

Supplemental routes

Main article: Special routes of U.S. Route 31

See also

• U.S. Route 41 in Indiana
• Indiana State Road 331
• Indiana State Road 431
• Indiana State Road 931
• Indiana State Road 933

External links

U.S. Route 31
Previous state: Kentucky	Indiana	Next state: Michigan