Drivers along Interstate 70 near Richmond are about to notice a big change in how they get on and off the highway. The Wayne County Sheriff's Office announced this week that traffic patterns at the U.S. 35 interchange are expected to shift this week, routing northbound and southbound vehicles onto two newly built roundabouts as part of the ongoing Revive I-70 project.
The shift is one piece of a much larger overhaul. According to the Wayne County Indiana Sheriff's Office, crews are building four new roundabouts across two interchanges — two at U.S. 35 and two at U.S. 40 — as INDOT reconstructs both into diamond interchanges and removes the outdated loop ramps that have long defined those exits. The goal, per the sheriff's office, is to eliminate the weaving movements from entrance and exit ramps that have made those stretches of highway tricky to navigate.
Interchange Work Nearing the Finish Line
Progress photos dated July 2026 show the U.S. 40 interchange's western roundabout already about 60% complete, with construction underway on its eastern roundabout as well, the sheriff's office post noted. New connecting ramps are being built at both U.S. 35 and U.S. 40 to tie into the roundabouts once they're finished. Both interchanges are expected to open in their final configuration in late 2027.
The Revive I-70 project stretches far beyond these two interchanges. An official INDOT project summary updated in January 2026 details that the effort is adding a third travel lane in each direction between Cambridge City and Richmond, expanding the highway from four to six total lanes across 20 miles. INDOT engineering documentation from October 2024 also indicates that all 40 bridges along that 20-mile corridor in Wayne County are slated for widening, replacement, or rehabilitation to accommodate the extra lanes.
Why Roundabouts, and Why Now
The push toward roundabouts isn't just about local convenience — it's a safety strategy backed by federal data. A traditional intersection carries 32 conflict points where vehicles can collide, compared to just 8 in a roundabout, and the design eliminates right-angle crashes altogether while greatly reducing serious ones, according to figures the sheriff's office attributed to the Federal Highway Administration. That agency's data cited in the post credits roundabouts with cutting fatal crashes by 90%, injury crashes by 75%, all crashes by 37%, and pedestrian injuries by 40%.
That safety math matters more in Wayne County than in many places, since heavy commercial truck traffic accounts for more than 50% of total vehicle volume along I-70 there, according to INDOT project leadership cited by Construction Equipment Guide. Roundabouts are designed to accommodate large vehicles, trucks, and buses, and with more than 11,000 already in use across the United States, the sheriff's office post reminded residents the design has been proven for decades. Officials also note the reduced idling at roundabouts cuts vehicle emissions and fuel consumption compared with stop-and-go intersections.
Basic Rules for Navigating the New Circles
For drivers unfamiliar with the format, the sheriff's office laid out four key steps: slow down, yield to cars already in the roundabout, never stop within it, and follow the pavement markings. Those instructions apply as soon as the U.S. 35 traffic shift takes effect this week.
The project sits within a roughly $1 billion corridor investment, according to Construction Equipment Guide's January 2026 report, with Contract 1 alone — covering the stretch from west of U.S. 35 to the Ohio state line — carrying a price tag of nearly $378 million. That contract was awarded to a design-build joint venture of The Walsh Group, Crider & Crider, and Rieth-Riley Construction, with full corridor completion scheduled for 2029, the outlet reported. INDOT has also instituted an active construction zone speed limit of 55 mph across the entire Revive I-70 corridor in Wayne County for the duration of the multi-year project, according to Visit Richmond Indiana.
A Corridor Already Tested This Month
The interchange work comes just days after severe flooding caused a section of westbound I-70 near mile marker 146 in Wayne County to wash out and buckle, forcing an emergency closure, as reported by WBNS-TV. State crews working alongside Revive I-70 contractors completed full repairs on the damaged stretch in under 32 hours, reopening the highway before this week's traffic shift, according to an INDOT news update. Ohio Department of Transportation officials noted that closures like that one force regional freight traffic to detour south via I-71 to Cincinnati and I-74 toward Indianapolis, underscoring how disruptions on this stretch of I-70 ripple well beyond Wayne County.
The corridor's importance to cross-border coordination is nothing new. Hoodline reported in June that Wayne County law enforcement regularly coordinates traffic and emergency responses with neighboring Preble County and Montgomery County agencies in Ohio along I-70, a dynamic that has also surfaced in a fatal ramp crash investigation earlier this summer. As construction continues through 2027 and beyond, officials are betting that the new roundabouts will make those investigations — and everyday commutes — a little less dangerous.
