Indy Chamber Study: Transform Downtown by Sinking I-65/70 Below Ground

(INDIANAPOLIS) — The Indy Chamber wants to change some highway overpasses downtown to underpasses.

The Chamber-led “Rethink Coalition” says I-65 and 70 are going to need upgrades to handle more traffic and make them safer. Instead of just doing the same thing but bigger, the coalition is recommending putting the highway below ground level.

Rethink’s Kevin Osburn says the current footprint basically puts up walls blocking development of downtown to the north, east and south. He says Dallas, Cincinnati, and Columbus, Ohio, have used the “sink and shrink” approach, allowing neighborhoods to reconnect and improving the quality of life in communities which now live in the shadow of the highway. In Cincinnati, he says, the redesign cleared the way for Great American Ballpark and Paul Brown Stadium for the Reds and Bengals, while Dallas built a park directly over the highway.

The coalition estimates the recessed highway would cost $2.8 billion, a half-billion more than just upgrading the current structure. But the group argues more than a third of that difference could be offset quickly by new development, with long-term opportunities closing the gap further. Indy Chamber chief policy officer Mark Fisher says it’s a chance to make downtown not just a business district, but Indy’s largest neighborhood.

INDOT is already in the process of rebuilding the highways’ north split, but Indy Chamber strategy and policy director Taylor Hughes says that project has been engineered in a way that doesn’t rule out a sunken approach later. INDOT could also sink some of the three corridors identified by Rethink but not others.

Any construction is likely 12-to-15 years away. Hughes says the Senate-passed infrastructure bill includes money for engineering studies to assess the options.