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Neighborhood boxed in by city, North Split road closures

INDIANPOLIS (WISH) — Construction projects happening downtown in preparation for the North Split project are causing headaches for residents and business owners.

The two main entries to get to Windsor Park are 10th Street and 16th Street, both of which are going to be experiencing at least partial closures this week. People who live here say they don’t mind the construction but a warning would have been nice.

Martha Latta lives in Windsor Park and owns a business in the neighborhood. She says she was surprised to find she had to take an alternative way to get home this week.

“Yesterday coming home in the middle of the afternoon, 10th Street was closed. I had to circle all the way around up to 16th Street to come back down to get home to get to the store,” Latta said.

Other neighbors who live in Windsor Park say they too noticed the lack of warning for the closure.

“We saw the construction yesterday. I noticed it but there have not been any signs that said they were closing any of the streets,” Windsor Park resident Nicole Connors said.

Part of 16th Street will also be closed near the neighborhood every night from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m.

“If the city is closing 10th Street and the state is closing 16th Street, how are people even supposed to get into their neighborhood onto their street? It is just seems a little ridiculous to me,” Latta said.

Once they finally got home, neighbors were confused when they heard what they call a loud jack hammer noise at 10 p.m. Tuesday.

“Would’ve been nice to be warned that, for example, very loud construction would be happening at 10 p.m.,” Lauren Reiner, another Windsor Park resident, said.

Residents say the jack hammer was followed by other construction noises that lasted for about an hour.

“We have a hundred-year-old house. You could almost feel it. That is how loud it was,” Latta said.

She is worried about how the road closures and challenging navigation will impact her new business.

“You won’t be able to get into the neighborhood without having to do a pretty big detour,” Latta said. “If people can’t find you they are just going to turn around and go away. They are not going to come.”

People living in Windsor Park would like it if the city and the Indiana Department of Transportation could communicate their plans better to the neighborhood so they could be prepared.

“If roads were clearly marked, if detours were clearly marked, that would be better but that is not what we are experiencing right now,” Latta said.

Indiana Department of Transporation has a website set up for the North Split project; it outlines their plans and closures as they happen.