Tuesday, August 18, 2026
Benefits Beyond the Barricades
By Lloyd Winnecke
“If you’ve spent any time on the Lloyd Expressway, you have experienced this — the traffic backup,” I said, this time in my role as Evansville mayor. “It’s frustrating. It’s frustrating to me and to thousands of motorists who travel the Lloyd Expressway every day through the city.”
The audio is a little faint, but in the background you can even hear horns honking! To me, sounds of a call to action to set in motion a solution.
In that video, I also suggested a way out of our jam. Days earlier, my team and I had traveled through a continuous flow intersection in St. Louis, which opened my eyes to the possibility of a remedy — a reimagined Lloyd, cleverly harnessing cutting-edge designs customized to the location. That included the intersection at Stockwell Road. (By June 2026, it had been innovatively transformed into a hybrid intersection with a Displaced Left Turn on the north side and a Boulevard Left Turn on the south side. Where there was skepticism, drivers are now moving along swiftly and efficiently.)
Eventually, the Indiana Department of Transportation undertook a corridor study from the Posey County line to the Warrick County line. The result was an ambitious package of projects aimed at improving safety and mobility. What struck me most was their commitment of approximately $170 million to the effort. This was discretionary money. It could have been invested anywhere in the state, yet INDOT recognized the needs of Indiana’s third-largest city and decided Evansville was a priority.
I had confidence about the soundness of the solutions. My greater concern was whether residents would embrace them. Human nature tells us that people don’t always embrace change, especially when that change affects their daily commute.
So, in addition to detailing innovative plans, I promoted the idea of patience! We explained that not every intersection would require a major overhaul to improve traffic flow and combat congestion. There simply wasn’t enough land or funding to build interchanges everywhere. And, it would not be in one construction season, but four!
The Lloyd Expressway was not going to be cured overnight.
The key is trusting a long-term vision instead of focusing on short-term headaches. The planners — from INDOT to Lochmueller Group — worked to get the word out and continue to do so, being proactive as progress plows ahead simultaneously on the east and west sides. People may not enjoy the inconvenience, but at least they know what to expect, and transparency is half the battle.
Today, as CEO of the Evansville Regional Economic Partnership, I see the Lloyd Expressway through another lens. Infrastructure isn’t just about getting to the grocery store faster. It’s about economic competitiveness. Businesses want to know how efficiently they can move products and people. They want confidence that a region is investing in itself.
I can look out at the expressway and see benefits beyond the barricades — proof that short-term inconvenience to get us out of a lifelong conundrum can yield long-term progress.
I’m confident we can make it to 2028 if we simply remember the days before traffic cones, when delays were caused not by construction but by everyday congestion.
Congratulations to the Indiana Department of Transportation leadership team and the hardworking men and women of Lloyd4U. At the two-year mark of the project, they are creating a safer, more efficient corridor with less backups. They are well on our way to making history.
Lloyd Winnecke served three terms as Evansville mayor from 2012 through 2023. Since January 2024 he has served as CEO of the Evansville Regional Economic Partnership.
