Indiana DOT gives update on truck parking conversion projects

Truckers traversing the Hoosier State will see the number of available truck parking spaces at the state’s rest areas nearly double over the coming years.

In November 2022, the state announced a 10-year, $600 million Rest Area & Welcome Center Improvement Plan, which officials projected would add more than 1,200 truck parking spaces along Interstates 65, 70 and 74. According to the Indiana Department of Transportation, over 1,400 spaces already were being allocated to tractor-trailer parking across the state’s 26 rest areas.

In total, seven truck parking conversion projects were included in the plan. One of those projects, a conversion to the northbound Kankakee rest area along I-65 that included the construction of a new welcome center on the southbound side, has been completed already.

The site officially opened in October 2023. Natalie Garrett, strategic communications director with Indiana DOT, told Land Line that the project added 113 truck parking spaces, as well as restrooms and vending buildings.

A second conversion project began in June 2023 at the northbound and southbound Lebanon rest areas, located along I-65 at mile markers 148 and 149. Garrett said the project is expected to be completed this fall and will add 109 truck parking spaces between the two sites, bringing the overall total to 150. Restrooms and vending buildings also will be available at the renovated facilities.

As for what’s next in the state’s improvement plan, three different truck parking conversion projects – at the Lizton, Taylorsville and Nancy Hanks rest areas – originally were slated to be completed in 2025.

Garrett told Land Line that both the Lizton and Nancy Hanks conversion projects have seen their construction “pushed out” and that new letting dates for those projects will be available this summer. They are expected to add approximately 61 truck parking spaces – pending final designs – between the two locations.

Despite those setbacks, Garrett said the conversion project planned for the northbound and southbound Taylorsville rest areas is proceeding as planned and is scheduled for letting this November. In total, the project will add 69 truck parking spaces between the northbound and southbound sites. LL