INDIANAPOLIS — Prior to starting construction of the new Henry Street bridge across the White River, the City of Indianapolis pledged transparency to community members.
Portions of the project area overlap with the former first City Cemetery, in what may be the original Burying Ground, which was the city’s first cemetery in 1821.
“The Department of Public Works has made the commitment to go above and beyond what is required by state law regarding accidental discoveries found during construction of the Henry Street Bridge,” said Indy DPW Director Brandon Herget. “By working with the community, we have made significant changes to both our construction practices and how we will report out findings to the community so that the complex story of this site will not be lost to history. And now that we have finalized contracts for an Indiana University Indianapolis laboratory supervised by bioarchaeologists and forensic anthropology professionals, we can begin providing detailed updates regarding the process to our residents.”
During subsurface utility excavation on July 18, work was done to document multiple buried fiber optic lines at the former Diamond Chain complex, on the east side of the White River. During this work, an isolated human skeletal element was found by archaeologists inspecting soil in the vacuum truck holding tank. The discovery was determined to be the fourth metacarpal from an adult’s right hand.
The principal investigator did not see any further evidence of human remains and an established chain of command notifications list was initiated.
The Indiana DNR Division of Historic Preservation & Archaeology and Indy DPW were contacted on July 20, 2023. A deputy with the Marion County Coroner’s Office then arranged a site visit and cleared the site upon learning that the bone had been recovered. The United States Army Corps of Engineers were also contacted, per the stipulations of the Memorandum of Agreement signed for the Henry Street Bridge project.
Upon the finalization of contractual agreements, Dr. Jeremy Wilson with Indiana University Indianapolis received the remains on Jan. 16, 2024. Personal information such as age, race/ethnicity, and year of death or range of years of the decedent is not yet known. Remains will be reinterred at a later date.
City leadership has been meeting with members of the community since May of 2023 to help inform and develop construction and reporting processes, creating a Community Advisory Group (CAG) to provide transparency and accountability regarding the Henry Street Bridge project. This group will continue to work with the city to help guide how the site’s history will be memorialized.
The White River Innovation District project includes a new Henry Street Bridge over the White River. The purpose of the Henry Street Bridge is to provide added connectivity between the near west side and downtown and reduce existing congestion on adjacent roadways.