Neighbors got the chance Tuesday to tell Department of Public Works officials what they think about the upcoming two-year closure of the 16th Street Bridge over the White River.
Spoiler alert: They don’t much like the idea.
For the last month, residents in the Near West neighborhoods have experienced something they haven’t seen for years — all the bridges crossing the White River, including the long-delayed 30th Street Bridge, are open.
But the relief from detour headaches will only last until June.
The 16th Street Bridge over the White River is set to close for repairs beginning June 1, about a week after the Indianapolis 500.
The repairs will rebuild or replace portions of the bridge, including the arch ring, which supports the bridge, and the bridge deck, the roadway people drive over when crossing the bridge.
Westside residents have said they received little notice about the project and are concerned that the two-year closure will kill businesses and lengthen commutes. They also expect traffic detours to make neighborhoods less safe and medical emergencies more dangerous due to longer ambulance transportation times.
They petitioned Department of Public Works director Todd Wilson to keep the bridge partially open for vehicles during construction. Wilson denied that request April 2 via an email, saying that keeping the bridge open would be unsafe and would affect utility services to the west side. The bridge will still be open to pedestrians and cyclists.
At the April 7 meeting at the Friendship Missionary Baptist Church in Haughville, neighbors got the chance to ask Wilson and other DPW officials all of their questions and concerns.
Here’s what Wilson and residents had to say.
DPW’s bridge repair plan
Wilson said that after a March 11 meeting with residents and business owners from Haughville and Speedway, he sought to find a way to keep the bridge partially open.
He tasked contractors and DPW staff to test every alternative to a full closure, but, he said, they were unable to find one that didn’t compromise public safety.
“A full closure is the only way to protect the structural integrity of this bridge. We are performing what is essentially open-heart surgery on this structure,” Wilson said.
Utility lines hang from the northern side of the 16th Street Bridge over the White River April 2, 2026. He said in addition to replacing the decking and other parts of the bridge, the project also requires the excavation of the earth fill under the bridge and the temporary relocation of five utility lines that service Haughville and other areas on the west side.
The scope of those and other project needs would not leave space for vehicles, Wilson said.
“When you factor in that heavy machinery, the delicate utility shoring and the 16-inch water bypass we need to keep the taps running here, the math is settled. There is zero physical room for cars,” he told residents.
Wilson said that DPW would focus on finishing the bridge as soon as possible by increasing the number of workers and working with utility companies to speed up their parts of the project.
“We are authorizing night shifts. We are putting more boots on the ground to shrink the window, but we will not cut corners. The integrity of our workmanship is non-negotiable,” he said. “The 16th Street Bridge has carried us forward since 1948. We’re going to fix it, and we’re going to do it with the excellence that this city deserves.”
People listen during a town hall hosted by the Department of Public Works on April 7, 2026, at Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, regarding the 16th Street Bridge repair project. Detour routes for westbound traffic would take commuters down Indiana Avenue to 10th Street and up North White River Parkway West to 16th Street. Eastbound drivers can cross the 30th Street Bridge or the 10th Street Bridge.
The bridge repair was slated to begin in 2024, but was pushed back until the 30th Street Bridge reopened. That bridge opened in March, when many residents and business owners said they first heard of the upcoming 16th Street Bridge closure.
Residents voice concerns
Residents had many questions about the plan.
Aaron Williams, owner of the Nest Event Center and the Haughville Shared Kitchen, asked Wilson to explain why bridges on Lafayette Road and West Kessler Boulevard were able to remain partially open during construction and the 16th Street Bridge cannot.
Wilson said the two are different types of bridges with different capabilities.
The 16th Street Bridge is an earthen-filled concrete arch bridge, he said, while the other two are concrete beam bridges, which allow contractors to take half of the structure off at a time for repairs.
Aaron Williams, a Haughville small business owner, asks questions during a town hall hosted by the Department of Public Works on April 7, 2026, at Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, regarding the 16th Street Bridge repair project. Doris Minton-McNeil, a Wayne Township board member who also serves as president of the Westside Neighborhood Association, asked Wilson whether the 30th Street Bridge, which is still only partially open to traffic, could be fully opened for commuters.
Wilson said a two-way street conversion on 29th and 30th streets prevents them from doing so.
“Both of those segments are down to one lane each, so we did not want to create a bottleneck feeding two lanes into one lane,” Wilson said.
The Rev. Ronald Covington of Friendship Missionary Baptist Church had concerns about the detour route.
“This traffic is going to flow into 10th Street. What about the safety of our community and the streets?” Covington asked. “Do you have a plan, or do you have a concept of a plan for that?”
Wilson said DPW would consider additional measures to control traffic, such as temporary speed humps or closing some roads to traffic, if issues arose.
Jeffrey Tate, Tasha Johnson and Tyrone Chandler ask questions during a town hall hosted by the Department of Public Works on April 7, 2026, at Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, regarding the 16th Street Bridge repair project.
Some residents, like Jeffery Tate, said they weren’t satisfied with the detour options Wilson presented.
“This is pitiful. This is bad planning. We can take a rocket and shoot it around the moon, but you cannot come up with another way for this to happen? It’s pitiful,” Tate said.
Wilson did not respond to Tate’s comments.
Communication concerns
Many residents at the meeting said DPW had not successfully communicated project details to residents, leaving many surprised at the scope and duration of the bridge repairs.
DPW communications officer Kyle Bloyd said the department did have a public meeting about the 16th Street Bridge, but it happened in 2023 and no one attended.
“There’s been no transparency. There’s been no real communication with this community,” Covington said. “That is not the right thing to do. If we’re going to do this thing right, then there’s got to be mutual respect.”
Covington said Wilson did not present bridge project documents at the March 11 meeting. Wilson said the purpose of that meeting was to give a high-level overview of the project.
“I was coming just to give basic project information. I personally do not delve into the nuts and bolts of all of our projects. We have hundreds of projects that go on,” Wilson said. “So this (claim that) I haven’t been communicative is not fair in my opinion. I’ve been working with my team to get the answers that you all desperately need. I had to schedule them to get them here, so we’ve done our part in communication.”
Pike Township trustee Annette Johnson, city-county councilors Vop Osili and Kristin Jones, and Chris Bailey, Mayor Joe Hogsett’s chief of staff, attend a town hall hosted by the Department of Public Works on April 7, 2026, at Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, regarding the 16th Street Bridge repair project.
Carlena Moses, Near West community builder at the Hawthorne Community Center, wanted to know how DPW would communicate with residents in the future.
“When it comes to safety and preserving the community, what will the city be doing to make sure that the communication is streamlined and consistent throughout the life of the project?” she asked.
Bloyd said DPW would set up a website to provide weekly updates on the project and that DPW’s communications team would answer residents’ questions and connect them with project inspection teams.
“We’re going to have our project managers almost to the point of micromanaging the inspection team and construction team to keep them on schedule, but you know they’re not going to see everything,” Bloyd said. “That’s where we can work together and see what you’re seeing with detour traffic in neighborhoods. When you see something, know we can work together to find a solution that will make sense.”
How to contact DPW
Residents can contact DPW’s communications team via email at dpw.communications@indy.gov or by phone at 317-327-8895.
DPW also posts updates on their Facebook, Instagram and on X.
This article first appeared on Mirror Indy and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
