I-70 Westbound Closed at Centerville After Flood Washes Out Pavement

All westbound lanes of Interstate 70 are closed just east of Centerville Road in Wayne County, Indiana, after flooding washed the roadway away at mile marker 146.

If you are driving west toward Indianapolis, get off before that marker and follow the posted detour of U.S. 27, U.S. 36, and State Road 9. Do not treat this as a short cone job. The pavement is gone.

What INDOT actually closed

The Indiana Department of Transportation east-central alert is the primary document. It says all westbound lanes are closed just east of Centerville Road because flooding in Wayne County washed the roadway away at mile marker 146.

That is a missing travel surface, not a wet lane.

The official notice tells westbound traffic to follow U.S. 27, U.S. 36, and State Road 9, then return to I-70. It also says more repair information will come after the water recedes and crews can see the full damage.

There is no public reopen clock in that notice.

The same INDOT East account posted two photographs of the scene: buckled concrete, a drop into brown floodwater, and a pair of detour shields reading south 35 and east 70. Those pictures are why the department is telling drivers to turn around rather than inch past a puddle.

Live traffic status belongs on Indiana 511, not on a screenshot of last night’s map. The department also asks the public to report flooded roads at indot4u.com instead of guessing a farm-road bypass.

How this corridor actually works

I-70 is the main east-west interstate between Columbus, Ohio, and Indianapolis. Centerville sits just west of Richmond, near the Ohio line. A westbound closure there is a through-trip problem, not a local exit closure.

Eastbound traffic is not what the official notice closed. Do not invent a two-way shutdown from a one-way washout. If eastbound later closes, that will be a new INDOT sentence, not an inference from the photographs.

The posted detour uses U.S. 27, U.S. 36, and State Road 9. Those are two-lane and small-town roads, not a silent interstate. Expect slower speeds, farm traffic, and GPS that still tries to send you back onto the closed westbound mainline. Follow the signed loop until you are back on I-70, then ignore the app if it argues.

Trucks feel this first. A washed-out interstate slab is not a passenger-car-only event. If you are hauling through Wayne County, treat the detour as mandatory and check Indiana 511 for any later truck restriction on the signed loop.

Through travelers who planned a straight I-70 night into Indianapolis now have a choice: stay east of the washout, or commit to the detour and a later arrival. Deep Arrival’s RV parks and campgrounds near Indianapolis is useful only after you are actually west of the break. It is not a reason to force the closed lanes.

Why a flood washout is different from weekend construction

Indiana has spent this summer closing pieces of I-70 and I-285-style rebuilds on posted weekends. Those jobs have start clocks, end clocks, and cones. This one does not. The official language is that the roadway was washed away and that crews cannot finish the damage assessment until the water drops.

That changes the traveler math. A Friday night paving closure can be waited out in a hotel. A missing slab cannot. You either take the detour or you stop short of Centerville.

If you encounter high water on the detour itself, INDOT’s instruction is simple: do not keep driving. Turn around and find another route. Flooded pavement hides the next missing edge.

The department’s own photographs show why. One frame looks down a collapsed westbound lane into moving water. Another shows a drop beside the guardrail where the interstate used to be. Those are not construction cuts. They are the reason the official notice withholds a reopen date.

What to do if you are already on the road

If you are still in Ohio and heading west, decide before Richmond. Once you are on the Indiana mainline, the last clean choice is the signed U.S. 27 departure. Do not wait to see the hole.

If you are already west of mile marker 146, you are past the closed section. Keep going. Do not reverse into the washout to rubberneck.

If you are eastbound from Indianapolis, the official closure is not your lane. Still watch 511. A westbound slab failure next to a flooded ditch can produce later eastbound limits that the first notice does not list.

If you have a timed flight out of Indianapolis, add the detour before you leave the hotel. A washed-out interstate is not a 10-minute slip. It is a county-scale reroute on two-lane roads.

If you were counting on a rest area or fuel stop on westbound I-70 near Centerville, assume it is off the table. Fuel on U.S. 27 or in Richmond before you commit to the loop.

A realistic Thursday case looks like this. A driver leaves Dayton for a Friday morning Indianapolis meeting, hits the INDOT alert, and takes U.S. 27 instead of hoping the interstate reopened overnight. That driver arrives later and stays on pavement that still exists.

What remains unknown

INDOT has not published a repair duration. The official sentence is that more information will be available when the water recedes and crews can assess the damage. That is an unknown, not a hint that the road opens at dawn.

The notice also does not say whether eastbound I-70, nearby ramps, or later overnight work will change. Refresh 511 before every departure, not once per day.

Do not treat a social-media photo of standing water on a different county road as a second official closure. Only the INDOT notice and 511 list what is actually closed.

The honest next fact is the water. Until it drops, the department cannot tell you how much interstate is missing.

Westbound I-70 at Centerville is closed because the pavement is gone. Take the signed detour and refresh 511 before you drive. Do not wait for a Friday rumor to replace an official notice that has no reopen time.