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The city of Indianapolis announced Thursday that construction will begin on the Henry Street Bridge over the White River next week. The bridge is part of a state-local partnership to develop a major business park on the west side of the river, an effort that has been complicated by the planned excavation of human remains from a historic cemetery on the east side.
The $43 million Henry Street Bridge will connect the planned development, which includes the $200 million Elanco Animal Health Inc. headquarters, to the southeastern side of downtown Indianapolis. Greenfield-based Elanco announced in December 2020 that it would move to Indianapolis and build a 220,000-square-foot headquarters. It broke ground on the project in April 2022.
The headquarters will be one part of a tech park focused on human, animal and plant health sciences in partnership with Purdue University and the Indiana Economic Development Corp.
The bridge will include an extension of the Indianapolis Cultural Trail. Lilly Endowment is funding $15 million of the project for special design elements, including 80-foot rings encircling the bridge. City officials told IBJ in June that costs have increased due to archaeological work on the east side of the river necessitated by the former cemeteries.
Work on the bridge itself is in the second phase of construction. Terre Haute-based Garmong Construction is building the bridge under a build-operate-transfer agreement with the city, with expected completion in fall 2026. The first phase began in January, with Garmong installing water mains, sewers and other utilities on the west side of the White River.
The work will require both pedestrian and vehicular detours.
The White River Greenway (also known as the White River Trail or White River Wapahani Trail) will close between Kentucky Ave. and Washington Street on or after Tuesday, Sept. 3. The detour for bicyclists and pedestrians follows Washington Street, the Indianapolis Cultural Trail along Capitol Avenue, South Street, Missouri Street, McCarty Street and Kentucky Avenue.
South White River Parkway will also close between Washington Street and Oliver Avenue. That detour follows Harding Street.
The future of the cemetery sites
The city of Indianapolis is charged with construction through a small strip of right of way that cuts through the former sites of several 19th century cemeteries on the east side of the river. Those cemeteries are collectively known as Greenlawn Cemetery.
In a June update, Indianapolis officials said the city had hired a firm specializing in archaeology and would submit new plans to the state’s Department of Natural Resources to address concerns about the excavation of its one-acre parcel.
The archaeological work will begin in earnest this fall after the State Historic Preservation Office approves the submitted archaeology plan, a spokesperson for the Department of Public Works told IBJ on Thursday. The archaeology work will be underway on the east side while bridge construction is underway on the west bank.
The city estimates that 650 or more graves could be unearthed during the construction of the bridge project. Proper excavation and resettlement of the remains is expected to cost upward of $12 million.
A much larger portion of the land on the east bank is privately owned. Indianapolis-based developer Keystone Group had planned to create a $1 billion multi-use development on its 20 acres, including a 20,000-seat soccer stadium for the Indy Eleven. Talks between city officials and Keystone Group broke down this spring when the Hogsett administration chose to instead pursue a Major League Soccer expansion club with a proposed stadium site at the downtown heliport.
The administration offered to purchase the site in a May 22 letter to Keystone Group. Indianapolis Chief Deputy Mayor Dan Parker told IBJ Tuesday that there hasn’t been movement on that offer.
“Diamond Chain is still privately owned,” Parker said during IBJ’s Commercial Real Estate & Construction Power Breakfast, referring to the company that occupied the site for more than a century. “There has not necessarily been any reaction to the city’s proposal to purchase the site, but we’re ready and willing to have discussions with Keystone related to Diamond Chain with a recognition that it’s a challenging site.”
Parker added that the construction of the bridge will be done “the right way.”
Keystone Group has been silent on the development of Eleven Park since Indianapolis city officials advanced the Hogsett administration’s plans for a potential stadium at the heliport against the private developer’s wishes.
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Unfortunately this sounds like the new ‘Haunted Bridge’ in Indy. Between killing off Indy11 Park, possibly killing the Indy11 team, and the 650+- excavated human remains, all the classic elements are in place for a true Haunted Bridge.
Even though it’s forcing a temporary closure of a section of the Wapahani, I’m glad the bridge is being built where it is. I was worried it would actually be south of the I-70 overpass, meaning they were going to screw up one of Indy’s best hidden green spaces.
That area was a large Black community that was taken over during Indy’s “Urban Development” phase. They will undoubtedly encounter the same situation Indy11 Park did.