INDIANAPOLIS — A multi-million dollar upgrade in infrastructure is coming to the east side of Indianapolis.
Citizens Energy Group broke ground Thursday, Aug. 15 on a multiyear project to update some of the city's oldest gas lines.
"Most of the houses in this area were built in the 1940s,” said Alma Trawick, the president of the Keystone Millersville Neighborhood Association.
Trawick lives in one of those houses too on the city's east side.
"I know the inside of these houses are, their pipes are very old,” Trawick said.
What Trawick didn't realize is many of the gas lines underground in her neighborhood – the ones she can't see – are just as old.
Thursday, Citizens Energy Group, the U.S. Department of Transportation, along with lawmakers and other community leaders, came together in Trawick’s neighborhood to ceremonially break ground on the replacement of those gas lines.
"Today, we are shining a spotlight on the renewal of safe, efficient infrastructure in our Indianapolis neighborhoods,” Citizens Energy Group President and CEO Jeffrey Harrison said.
The nearly five miles of gas lines are getting replaced using a $7.5 million grant from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which Indiana Congressman Democrat André Carson voted for when it passed nearly three years ago.
"For far too long, our infrastructure was neglected and underfunded. For far too long, communities have been at risk without the funds necessary to upgrade gas main lines and other pipelines,” Carson said. “This project marks a new start for this neighborhood, one that is safer and cleaner. This project marks the start of a new beginning.”
Energy companies who needed pipes replaced applied for the grants that were awarded to areas across the country with some of the oldest pipes, the ones at highest risk for breaks and leaks. Some neighborhoods on the east side, like Trawick's, were among them.
"We've seen a higher rate of serious injuries and even fatalities, particularly with cast iron pipes and the type of pipe you see here,” said Tristan Brown, the deputy administrator with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration of the Department of Transportation.
Now, plastic pipes will replace the cast iron ones.
"We don't want to take any chances, right? So we're removing an element of risk by getting these pipes replaced,” Brown said.
It’s a risk Trawick didn't even know existed in the neighborhood she calls home.
"We need to be safe. We need to be safe where we work, sleep, worship, whatever, and so I think this is a great start,” Trawick said.
Thursday was just the start of the project. Over the next two years, Citizens Energy Group plans to replace the last of 4.7 miles of pipes on the city’s east side, stretching from Fall Creek to 30th Street.