INDIANAPOLIS — Citizens Energy Group temporarily closed Pleasant Run South Drive from East Pleasant Run Parkway N. Drive through the intersection at N. Ritter Ave. beginning Aug. 2. Traffic was detoured using 10th St., E. Washington St., and N. Arlington. Construction is expected until the end of September.
The closure is a result of site preparation for the Pleasant RunTunnel segment of the DigIndy Tunnel System that begins in the southeast corner of Ellenberger Park. While the work in Ellenberer will not affect traffic, it will close the southeast quadrant of the park — the athletic fields — until work is completed in 2025.
Since the closure, local residents have complained that drivers are taking shortcuts around the site through narrow streets used by children. During rush hour (after 5 p.m.), some people who live in the neighborhood have found it almost impossible to access their homes or to make turns. Traffic has also been snarled on East 10th St. and East Washington
According to Citizens Energy Group, DigIndy is the many years-long project that will solve the problem of combined sewer overflow issue that has plagued the city for decades, leading to pollution in the White River and other water courses. Combined sewers — pipes that carry both storm water and sewage — were built 100 years ago but no longer serve the needs of the city Indianapolis has grown to be. The federal government has ordered the city to remedy the situation by 2025.
The first phase of the DigIndy project began back in 2003 with improvements to the Belmont Advanced Water Treatment plant, and have taken place in stages along critical water courses over the years. The tunnels are built more than 200 feet below ground, and when completed will store more than 250 million gallons of sewage after downpours. The sewage will be slowly released to the Southport Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant when capacity is available.
The tunnels, including the one to be built in Ellenberger, is built beneath the bedrock with a tunnel boring machine. The tunnel is then lined with concrete, keeping groundwater out and sewage in the tunnel.
The Pleasant Run Tunnel begins in the southwest corner of the Pleasant Run Golf Course on Arlington near Michigan St. and ends near Lilly Recreational Park on the southwest side, linking up with the Deep Rock Tunnel Connector.
Other tunnels include the White River, Lower Pogues Run, and Fall Creek on the northeast side, and are either slated for construction or completed.
When the full 28-mile DigIndy Tunnel System is complete in 2025, up to 99 percent of raw sewage, or 6 billion gallons annually, will be prevented from entering waterways in Marion County.
