INDIANAPOLIS — The next phase of the Circle City Forward Initiative, a $25 million investment in residential streets across Marion County has started. The public investment in neighborhoods throughout Marion County will concentrate on bringing road crews to residential streets.
In recent years, Indy DPW has allocated significant funding towards the improvement the city’s thoroughfares, and deterioration data show sustained improvement in the quality of these roadways. Though the department has also invested in more staff and equipment to provide better maintenance on residential streets as a complement to work on thoroughfares, deterioration data indicate that residential streets should be next in line for a boost of capital improvement. This $25 million investment equates to about 50% of the amount DPW has been able to spend on residential streets in the previous 5 years.
The Department of Public Works has worked with the Council to come up with a formula for distribution that recognizes that each council district is different, with varying amounts of deteriorated street mileage, varying affluence among neighborhoods, and the various considerations of excluded cities whose streets don’t fall under Indianapolis jurisdiction. The formula includes a baseline of $200,000 worth of investment for each Council district, with additional percentages of the total funding based on lane mileage of needy infrastructure as well as median household income.
The Circle City Forward initiative was launched in February with the announcement of $190 million in enhancements to City-County facilities, to enhance the delivery of local government services while investing in Marion County neighborhoods.