Public Private Partners Agree to Hire International Infrastructure Consulting Firm Funded by Lilly Endowment

To Rethink 65/70 Coalition Supporters ---February 13, 2020

TODAY WE ARE ABLE to announce a major step toward getting a serious, objective study of the best options for the reconstruction of the downtown I-65/I-70 Inner Loop, aside from the North Split.

The Rethink 65/70 Coalition leadership team has been working for over a year to find funding for such a study. Rethink invited the Indy Chamber and its Foundation to join us in this effort last summer.

Today we are pleased to announce that Lilly Endowment has granted the Indy Chamber Foundation the funds we requested ($475,000) to retain Arup Advisors to conduct the study. Arup is the internationally known infrastructure consultancy that Rethink hired in 2018 to conduct an initial land-use analysis of Inner Loop design alternatives, and it can now conduct a deeper traffic and fiscal analysis of Inner Loop design options.

A copy of the Chamber’s press release is available here. This study has the support of the Mayor’s Office, the Indianapolis City-County Council leadership, the Office of the Governor, and INDOT.

As you know, the Rethink 65/70 Coalition continues to work on downtown I-65/I-70 reconstruction issues facing our community. We do so on two parallel tracks. For the near term, we are engaged with the community to work through the Community Sensitive Solutions (CSS) process and the historic preservation Section 106 process with INDOT and HNTB for the North Split project, which is due to begin construction next year. For the long term, we have been pursuing funding to study Rethink’s proposed Recessed Highway Concept versus traditional elevated highway reconstruction of the rest of the Inner Loop, which will necessarily take place in the next ten years as the existing interstate and bridges reach the end of their lifespan.

Today’s announcement is the achievement of the first step of our long-term goal.

Working with the Indy Chamber, we have assembled a broad-based community, business, and multi-level governmental Advisory Committee to give local expertise and community perspectives into the study, which we anticipate being completed by the end of 2020.

Thank you for your continued support of the Rethink 65/70 Coalition’s efforts to chart a new course for downtown interstate transportation that better serves people, communities, and business for the next 50 years.

~The Rethink 65/70 Coalition Leadership Team