Indian Canyon Road Closure To Repair Street After Tropical Storm Hilary

Indian Canyon drive has been a headache for drivers, between storm damage and dust closures, but Palm Springs City staff says they’re working to keep drivers safe.

“We understand the critical nature of Indian Canyon Drive and we want it to be open.” Joel Montalvo, the Palm Springs City Engineer says.

The City of Palm Springs has been actively trying to repair the damage done by Tropical Storm Hilary.

Wednesday night’s Indian Canyon Road closure is just an addition to those repairs.

“This particular road closure that was going to happen overnight was going to allow our contractor to repave the road and stripe it so that we can put it back to its original form before the storm hit.” Montalvo says.

The city says this project is not to be confused with the reconstruction of the Indian Canyon bridge.

“Now what we have is the storm damage work compiled are working alongside the bridge work and they’re basically, to the public it looks like it’s one project but there’s actually two three different things going on all at the same time.” Montalvo adds.

With Indian Canyon being one of the main roads to Desert Regional Medical Center, for cities like Desert Hot Springs, officials say, working at night is the best option, “Just overnight, actually will allow more… to be less disruptive to the general public, right? We don’t want to disrupt people coming into work or ambulances or other things so the closure happens at night because we have less traffic.”

Those residents who use Indian Canyon everyday are thrilled to see the roads return to their previous state.

“They pushed the lanes closer so it could be two lanes so you can go in and out. But, I think it’s gonna be great once they open it for two lanes because it gets pretty packed and then they got a four way stop right now which is kind of crazy.” Ricardo Casillas, a Coachella Valley resident says.

The Indian Canyon Road closure will take place Wednesday evening starting at 9 p.m.,  and will re-open to drivers at 5 a.m. Thursday morning.