INDIANAPOLIS — The city of Indianapolis is on the fast track to fixing its many bumpy and below-average roads.
Last week city leaders passed a proposal to pour $13 million into repairing and redesigning Marion County's roads. The bulk of that, $10 million, is going directly toward immediate road repairs. After the proposal passed, city leaders didn't delay putting that money to work.
On Tuesday, Mayor Joe Hogsett announced road repairs have already begun on both East 91st Street and South Tibbs Avenue. These two roads are part of the more than 100 lane miles expected to be rehabilitated this summer through the effort.
“We know better infrastructure is an urgent priority for all neighborhoods. That’s why, only two weeks after my office proposed an additional $13 million for enhancing residential streets, we have begun work on projects throughout Marion County," Hogsett said.
The road repairs will target the most deteriorated streets in each of the city-county councillors' districts. The streets that will undergo immediate rehabilitation include segments of:
- Moore Road
- College Avenue
- Allisonville Road
- Hague Road
- East 79th Street
- West 56th Street
- East 46th Street
- West 62nd Street
- West 30th Street
- Burdsal Parkway
- Emerson Avenue
- Tobey Drive
- Cumberland Road
- West 10th Street
- West Ray Street
- East St. Clair Street
- East Hanna Avenue
- East 10th Street
- Superior Road
- East Troy Avenue
- West Morris Street
- Brehob Road
- East Edgewood Road
- East Southport Road
- East 91st Street
- Grandview Drive
- Dugan Drive
- South Tibbs Avenue
City-County Councilor Dan Boots said $3 million of the funding passed last week will go toward designing future residential roadway projects. The funds will kick-start future improvements along residential streets, preparing designs for full street reconstruction.
Boots explained that this funding is unique — and necessary — because over the last 25 years, "very little money" has gone directly toward residential roads.
"Getting into the neighborhoods, getting into the side streets is a novel thing and it's the magic of the administration here to make wine out of water, to create some of this money," Boots said of the new funding.
All of this new funding is in addition to the nearly $160 million that city leaders had already budgeted for projects fixing roads, bridges, sidewalks and greenways across Indianapolis this year.