US 20 in New Carlisle reopens after months of construction

NEW CARLISLE, Ind.-- After months of construction, U.S. 20 and the viaduct between Marvel Lane and South Race Street reopened Tuesday afternoon.

With traffic finally flowing normally, shops in town are excited to get back to business.

“Judging from what I see in here tonight I’m pretty excited about it. It’s a heck of a lot busier than we were the last couple weeks on Tuesday’s so it’s good,” says Eli Stevens, co-owner of LongShots Bar and Grill.

Support of New Carlisle shops has been strained while INDOT worked to repair the only direct route to travel through town.

Stevens says business dropped about 20%.

“It’s been a difficult few months for sure because it was hard to show people how to get into town. The detours are a bit confusing,” says Stevens.

Many customers didn’t want to deal with those detours. Unexpected delays halted construction for several weeks, driving a lot of business away from downtown.

“It’s just an inconvenience to have to take the back roads to here,” says patron Mike Utterback.

Utterback was one of many customers back in the restaurant when the road reopened.

“It’s nice to see it opened up there’s more people here tonight it’s as busy as we’ve seen it in quite a while,” says Utterback.