ARTICLES

Irvington's Cloverleaf
By Steve Barnett,
Executive Director of the Irvington Historical Society

BACK

HOME

In the early 1940s, highway plans for Indianapolis included a bypass boxing the city that was designated Indiana Road 100.  The east side of the box followed an improved 4-lane Shadeland Avenue north of its intersection with U. S. 40, Washington Street.  Future plans called for Shadeland to extend south of U. S. 40 intersecting with the south side of the box.

Industrial development along Shadeland Avenue was bringing thousands of workers daily by 1952 to plants, including Chrysler and Western Electric, and a dramatic improvement at Shadeland's intersection with U. S. 40 to accommodate left-turning traffic was needed.  Thus was born the concept of a "cloverleaf."  Highway planners in New Jersey developed this method of providing easy and safe access to major roadways in the late 1920s,  Already, in northern Indiana several "cloverleafs" had been built and, the one contemplated at U. S. 40 and Shadeland Avenue would be the first one in central Indiana and one of the first on the National Road.

With design and land acquisition completed, construction began in 1954.  The sections on the north side of U. S. 40 were completed first.  This enabled traffic to use the roadways while the bridge was built.  On November 4, 1955, the completed cloverleaf was dedicated and opened to traffic.  Costing $1,500,000 [2009 $11,939,000], the "ultra-modern vehicular cloverleaf incorporated design features which made the other cloverleafs in the state "almost obsolete."  The bridge was "the first reinforced concrete rigid-frame type ever used on an interchange in Indiana."  Both The Indianapolis Star and The Indianapolis News ran drawings with informational captions explaining to motorists how to use the cloverleaf.  However, full use of the cloverleaf was delayed until Shadeland Ave, Ind. 100, was extended south of U. S, 40.  Unfortunately this length of road, when completed, extended only a short distance ending at a bridge spanning a railroad south of English Avenue.

The failure of the state highway department to complete the Indianapolis bypass, often having built roads, like Shadeland Avenue, abruptly ending at a "bridge to nowhere," became an issue in the 1960 election campaign for governor.

(Map from Google Earth)