Shuttles, new parking lots considered for crews during peak SK hynix construction
Plus, why rail crossing improvements expected to close South Street for part of the summer might be on hold for now.
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Catching up on a few notes from last week …
SHUTTLES, NEW PARKING CONSIDERED FOR CREWS DURING PEAK SK HYNIX CONSTRUCTION
A shuttle from a yet-to-be-built parking lot near Purdue athletic fields could be among ways to deal with construction crew traffic coming and going at the $3.87 billion SK hynix semiconductor facility being built on the north side of West Lafayette.
The company expects a maximum of 3,000 vehicles a day – with up to 1,100 an hour – along Yeager Road during the construction’s peak period from September 2027 and June 2028, according to an updated report presented last week to the West Lafayette Traffic Commission.
The South Korean company started moving dirt and pouring foundations this spring for its high-bandwidth memory assembly plant and R&D facilities on 121 acres north of Kalberer Road, between Yeager Road and County Road 50 West.
As construction ramps up ahead of a planned opening in 2028, here were some of the developments laid out for the city’s traffic commission.
The company plans to build temporary paved parking on the west side of Yeager Road, on what initially had been targeted for the SK hynix location when it was announced in 2024. That location, Purdue Research Park land dubbed “Site A,” since gave way to SK hynix’s current construction on “Site B” acreage on the east side of Yeager, north of Endeavour Drive. Steve Simpson, a construction lead with HanmiGlobal, said the lot would have parking for 1,250 personnel. The plan includes restriping a section of Yeager Road to include turn lanes into the lot. The company’s plans also show a traffic signal meant to get pedestrians across Yeager Road to the construction site. Once construction is over, Simpson said, the lot would be removed, with the Purdue Research Foundation-owned property restored to its current condition.
SK hynix’s site will include parking for 800 vehicles during construction.
SK hynix and Purdue Research Foundation are negotiating with Purdue to use 10 acres near Cherry Lane and McCormick Road to build a lot that could handle 1,000 spaces, where crews could park and take shuttles 4.7 miles to the construction site for 14 months, between April 2027 and June 2028. Brittany Heidenreich, with PRF, said the idea is “still in concept” stages, but Purdue’s master plan includes the university eventually adding recreational sports fields at the site, in the vicinity of a complex that includes Alexander Field, Folk Field and the Grand Prix track. She said the by building a lot now, it could be used temporarily for SK hynix construction before turning it back for parking for sports uses and as overflow parking for Purdue events.
Heavy truck traffic for the SK hynix construction site remains designated to use Sagamore Parkway to Yeager Road from the east; and Sagamore Parkway to Morehouse Road to Kalberer Road to Yeager Road from the west.
Simpson told the traffic commission that SK hynix was monitoring other projects slated north of Kalberer Road.
Among them:
IU Health broke ground this spring near the corner of Yeager Road and County Road 500 North on a hospital – which will have 12 inpatient beds, a 24-hour emergency department, four operating rooms and advanced imaging services – expected to open in 2028.
Parkview Health is aiming to break ground this summer on a $200 million, 40-bed hospital west of Yeager Road and between Endeavour Drive and Kalberer Road. That project is scheduled to open in 2028.
Millbrook, a 344-acre residential and neighborhood business project proposed by Estridge Homes, a Carmel-based builder, received rezoning clearance for work expected over the next decade north of the Purdue Research Park to County Road 500 North, stretching from County Road 50 West to Morehouse Road.
Work continues on apartment projects along Yeager Road and on residential subdivisions on the east side of County Road 50 West/Salisbury Street.
“I think the city is going to try to get us all into a room at the same time together every so often to communicate amongst each other, so that you keep things moving and flowing,” Simpson told the traffic commission. “Just a lot of construction going on in this part of town, and it’s all going to be going on at the same time.”
Construction at the SK hynix site continues despite a pair of lawsuits filed in 2025, challenging the West Lafayette City Council’s 6-3 vote to rezone the property in May 2025 to accommodate the industrial use. Those cases are scheduled for a three-day trial, starting Dec. 1, in Tippecanoe Circuit Court.
SK hynix officials say they have pressed ahead to meet deadline to open the R&D and manufacturing facility where it will assemble high-bandwidth memory chips for use in a growing AI market by 2028. SK hynix officials have said the facility eventually will employ 800 to 1,000 people.
For a look at traffic patterns laid out during SK hynix construction, here’s a link to the report made to the West Lafayette Traffic Commission on June 24.
For more coverage
LAFAYETTE SAYS START OF SOUTH STREET CROSSING PROJECT HELD UP BY RAIL COMPANY
When the Lafayette Redevelopment Commission this spring approved a $3.1 million project that will include signals, storm sewer improvements and trails along South Street, between Sagamore Parkway and the entrance to the U.S. Post Office, the construction schedule included a four- to six-week closure to work on smoothing out a little-used, but rough rail crossing this summer. The plan, laid out in April, was to get the project done on the crossing by Aug. 13, to beat the busy arrival time for students ahead of Purdue’s fall semester. (The rest of the project would continue through April 2027, according to the contract with Milestone Contractors.)
Last week, Dennis Carson, the city’s economic development director, was asked by the Redevelopment Commission whether that was still the plan.
Carson said the city had been hitting roadblocks to getting started because Norfolk Southern has been slow to give final approval for crossing improvements on South Street.
“It’s been very, very difficult, to say the least,” Carson said Thursday. “They have a whole set of procedures and policies you have to work through, and you get through all those, and they give you 20 more. We’re still working through that.”
Carson said the city is considering breaking the project into phases, in case the rail company continues to drag things out. Whether the crossing improvement piece of the project gets done this summer is up in the air, he said.
Before picking a contractor, the city had been negotiating with Norfolk Southern, the rail company that owns the tracks, on the project for some time. The tracks carry only a handful of trains each month at a spot that handles daily traffic of 22,840 vehicles on a street formerly designated as Indiana 26, according to Federal Railroad Administration counts.
Attempts to reach the rail company were not immediately successful.
Thanks, again, for support for this edition from the Art Museum of Greater Lafayette, presenting its annual Daylily Stroll July 11. For more: Daylily Stroll tickets and Art Museum membership information are available here.
Thanks also, for support from Purdue Convocations, presenting Shucked, Riverdance 30, KODO, Clue, Black Panther in Concert, The Wiz, and more! Single-show tickets are now available. Grab your favorite show today or create your own season package and save 10% with a PICK5 subscription! View the full season of dance, theater, music, and ideas, and BUY TICKETS today!
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Tips, story ideas? I’m at davebangert1@gmail.com.
Isn't the Parkview Health site west of Yeager?
Looks like a lot of work in that area over the next few years! Exciting time for our community.
Is Arbor Chase going to expand more North of (new) 425W? Seems odd to just have that peninsula.