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Indianapolis officials on Monday announced plans for a multi-year reconfiguration of Madison Avenue in an effort to slow traffic on the south-side thoroughfare.
Plans call for a $47 million “road diet” of Madison Avenue, including the removal of two vehicular lanes and the addition of new pedestrian and cyclist space. The project is being funded through multiple federal grants distributed by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Planning Organization.
Construction workers will break ground on the first phase of the project, from Ray Street to Pleasant Run North Drive, in spring 2025. Work will continue in two additional phases, with completion slated for winter 2028.
City officials said the first phase will include repaving of 16 miles of street, adding more than 15,000 linear feet of new curbs and sidewalks, and introducing the 7,200-foot Interurban Trail, which will be expanded at a later date to connect downtown to Indianapolis’ far-south side.
Department of Public Works Director Brandon Herget said City-County Council member Kristin Jones first told him of constituent concerns about drag racing on Madison Avenue in 2020, when he was a council staffer. He said the process of acquiring federal funds took several years. Funding for the first phase of the project was awarded in 2022. The city received the $11.7 million for the final phase this year.
“It’s not a project that we could afford on our own,” Herget told reporters. “And so that process … takes quite a bit of time.”
Herget said the six-lane thoroughfare has become overbuilt. Since the advent of the interstate system, thoroughfares such as Washington Street and Madison Avenue have seen decreases in usage.
“Where we are today, as the neighborhood here has evolved, it warrants slower traffic; it warrants a safer experience,” Herget said.
The city has completed a similar “road diet” on West Michigan Street. Herget said it’s too early now for traffic data to prove the efficacy of the construction project, but that anecdotally, having more space dedicated to pedestrians and cyclists makes the space feel safer.
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This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. This stretch of Madison Ave was designed for heavy auto traffic use. Now that the city has destroyed Meridian St. as an artery, it wants to take 2 lanes away? The people making this decision should be fired. No one wants to walk or bike down a concrete canyon designed to speed up commutes. Stop ruining the city I used to love.
Amen!
It won’t be designed for commuters anymore, that’s the point. It will be designed for the people who actually live there. Take 69 or 65 if you want to go 60 mph to get home to the burbs.
People regularly fly down Madison and endanger others, people race up and down Madison at all hours of the day. People actually live in this area and want safe streets and sidewalks. Sorry it is going to take you 2 extra mins to get to whatever chain restaurant you are going to in Greenwood. I’m sure the deep-fried double cheeseburger with the large Diet Coke will still be waiting for you. This plan is a good idea for an area that has long been neglected by the city.
People do actually want to walk and bike down this corridor, but because there’s no infrastructure for them, they keep getting hit by motorists. This change is long overdue.
The road is six lanes and the traffic levels don’t nearly justify that. It will still be fine with only four lanes.
Actually. I prefer my deep-fried double cheeseburger with regular Coke or Mountain Dew. It’s hard to find that up here in Carmel.
Joe B will be here shortly to Democrat-splain how this a great idea and funding is no issue, in a city that is constantly saying they have no funding for even the most basic road maintenance
Actually Chuck I’d go further and rip out the entire Madison Avenue Expressway and return it to street level, but there isn’t the money for that. The entire project in the 50’s was a mistake IMO given how quickly the entire thing was quickly obsoleted by the interstates, it screwed up the surrounding neighborhoods, and was filled with corruption to boot.
I drive this stretch of road daily so I think this is pretty needed. Of the $47 million dollar project, over half is coming from federal grants. It’s kind of smart to use federal grants where you can. Kind of like using bus lines on underutilized roads to get the feds to pay for their repair.
Nice to hear from you Chuck though I’m a bit worried about how much you think about me.
https://intransporthistory.home.blog/2020/04/07/corruption-and-the-madison-avenue-expressway/
Chuck, if we cant’ afford to maintain our roads as is, the only logical solution is to reduce lane miles. Fewer lanes = fewer tax dollars required to keep the road in good condition. As Joe states, over half of the money is coming from federal grants. Road diets are the fiscally responsible thing to do. If you don’t like it, move.
Like Joe, I use this corridor almost daily, including weekend trips downtown for sports and dining.
I agree with Nelson to the extent that there will be an extended period of tough commuting from the south side (outside 465), since I-65 is about to get the “interstate makeover” treatment…which will again cause 31/Madison and Bluff (and Meridian/Illinois, if it ever reopens at Morris and past the Signia site) to get jammed up with traffic at rush hour. That will be even worse with Madison also under construction.
Now it’s even MORE CORRUPTION to undo what’s already been done. Madison Avenue’s lanes are needed now that the City has messed up Meridian and put too many cuts into US 31. Stop taking federal dollars. Put the government on a diet.
Lol
I don’t think you know what “corruption” is. It’s not a word for “anything I don’t like.”
Good gravy. Let’s take your point that Meridian is junked. You’ve got I-65, four lanes on US31/Madison, Bluff, and I-69/Harding if you’re commuting from the Southside. How many expressways through neighborhoods do you feel entitled to?
If you want to be upset about Meridian, how about being upset at the useless turn lane project that has closed intersections for months for useless turn lanes, work that leaves completed lanes closed for several weeks solely because INDOT apparently doesn’t do temporary striping, nor do they do permanent striping with any sort of hurry?
You want to stop government corruption? How about trimming INDOT back a bit and letting cities and towns have some of the money.
Joe, soon I-65 will be another INDOT disaster as they widen it next year. If there are also lane restrictions on Madison, it will make everything really tough inbound mornings and outbound afternoons on Harding and Bluff.
I’m just shocked to hear that the INDOT highway industrial complex requires another season of continual construction. It’s almost as though the idea of building the roads so they last longer … like they do elsewhere … would get you laughed out of meetings …
The fix for bad commutes is to move closer.
Nah. The fix for bad commutes is wfh or retire 🙂
For everyone who complains about the state of our roads, the reality is that they cost more to maintain than we can currently afford. IMPD and road maintenance make up the vast majority of the city budget. So, if we want to improve our roads, we’re left with 2 sensible options:
1. Move money from IMPD to road maintenance i.e. “Defund the Police”
2. Maximize federal grant opportunities to implement road diets throughout the city, reducing lane miles and future cost of keeping the road in good condition.
Number 2 seems to be the best option, no? Can anybody crying about this story offer a REALISTIC third option?
Raising taxes without any police defunding could work too.
There is an option 3: convince the state legislators who represent Marion County to insist the road funding formula from the state of Indiana stops disadvantaging large counties like Marion. Because what we have now is welfare, pure and simple – we send money to places where people are fleeing so the few people who don’t move can have nice roads.
Give INDOT less to build state highways no one uses, give cities like Indianapolis more for their streets that get more usage anyways.
Of course, that would require our Republican legislators to actually put their constituents in front of their party… which they have failed to do for decades now.
Joe, the rural/small town Rs at the statehouse actually do represent those de-populating counties. They are giving their voters exactly what they want: nice smooth empty roads.
The criminals among them are the suburban Rs who should be voting with the Ds to increase metropolitan city & county road funding and decrease INDOT influence on the suburbs. (*cough cough SR135, US36, SR67, SR32, SR38*)
Chris – I was referring to Marion County Republicans at the end, but I was not clear enough. Some like Freeman have already made clear their priorities are to enable faster commutes, consequences for others ignored. Witness his infatuation with eliminating bus lanes and ridiculous claims like the fastest route through Marion County is US40, not I-70…
Don’t reduce the number of traffic lanes. How about we lower the speed limits, (that is what NASCAR and INDYCAR did in the pitlane to reduce accidents and injuries. It Worked!) light up the speed limit signs with flashing lights, speed detection (radar) info signs, and increase IMPD Traffic Branch enforcement. Use that federal money for that. Remember 15 to 25 mph is faster than walking. I’d wager that would help reduce gun violence too as a traffic stop is one of the best ways to apprehend armed scofflaws. Morris Street is jacked up! I think I am driving a crossword puzzle. Drivers are crashing into the protrusions. The squiggly lane lines will fade away. They won’t be seen with a light snow. We Westsiders will just drive straight as we always have. The wide pedestrian/bike paths are nice for kids on minibikes and quads though.
You’re all wrong, and you’re all kind of right.
Madison was rebuilt in the 1950’s as a commitment to keep Eli Lilly in Indy. There was no downtown population back then, and we needed a clear and main thoroughfare to-from the south side. And there was a global fear of the need for mass evacuation in case of nuclear attack, of which not only Lilly, but other large businesses being potential targets.
Unfortunately we still have the need for mass evacuations, like tornadoes and others, but the whole system now relies on the interstates. Everything has changed over time. But, if you remember the 2006 tornado, the city was in total gridlock for over 4-5 hours with no cell phones working, and no electricity throughout 40-50% of the city. Total gridlock.
In the meantime, we still have 1000’s of miles of streets that need replacing, repaving, and fixing, that this project funding could have made a large city wide impact.
This Project funding could not have had a city-wide impact. Government doesn’t work like a personal bank account; money can’t just be transferred from one project to another. These are dollars that are approved by Congress and allocated to State DOTs and regional MPOs to then be distributed to localities on a competitive grant basis. These grant applications are scored based on a variety of variables, but the scoring is typically set by the regional MPO Board. Projects which spread the money thinly over a large area would simply not get money, because the quantitative impacts for any given area would be too weak to justify.
Basically, the money has come from a grant and the dollars must be spent towards the project described within the grant application. Money cannot be transferred from this pot of funds to another, unrelated project.
As someone who lives directly on Madison Ave and will be effected by this construction, I couldn’t be more happy. I am excited that the city it prioritizing bicycle and pedestrian safety. There is absolutely no reason this thoroughfare needs to be 6 lanes. Sorry (not sorry) to commuters but I live here and I’m tired of my neighbors dying by getting hit by cars and I’m tired of the constant street racers speeding down Madison with no regard to anyone’s life including their own. Guess the commuters will have to leave their home 5 minutes earlier to account for the….one less lane..boo hoo
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