Major construction means major traffic delays for the Indianapolis 500

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - If you're making your plans for race day one thing you need to take into account traffic.

While it's an issue every year with the hundreds of thousands of people trying to get to the Speedway, this year a major construction project will be bringing traffic to a halt.

We're talking about the I-465/I-74/Crawfordsville Road interchange. “What they're doing here is reconstructing the North side of the West bound lanes with traffic pushed onto the South side,” explains Nathan Riggs with INDOT the Greenfield District.

Come race day the area is expected to be a nightmare for fans trying to get to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. “Whenever you have a quarter of a million people on race day coming to a specific area you're going to have a some back ups,” says Riggs.

Nathan Riggs with INDOT says crews are ahead of schedule hoping to make the interchange a little bit smoother, but he stresses if you're heading out race day plan ahead and if you can take a different route. “To keep traffic running more smoothly so you don't have the back ups on the interstate,” says Riggs.

There are a number of alternate routes and Indiana State Police will be in the area helping direct traffic. “It still is a construction zone it's still 30 mile/hour zone and we ask people if they do decide to come this way drive safely through the construction zone even though no construction will be taking place on race day,” says Riggs.

Construction or not traffic is always and issue on race day and it might just take a little time, planning and patience. The construction is not expected to be complete until the fall.