Thursday, October 25, 2007

Development: Indiana Ave. Resurfacing

I don't intend to rant much on this blog, but this one got me going a bit. Apparently the Indianapolis Department of Public Works started resurfacing Indiana Ave. this morning. There are many facets and levels to my irritation with regard to this, so let's work through my frustration here.
  1. The project extends from 10th St. south to West St. The surface of that section of Indiana isn't great but it's not that bad. If any part of Indiana needs resurfacing, it's the section from Michigan south to New York. That section is a mess. Many other roads in downtown are in similar need of resurfacing.
  2. This segment of road isn't even in the DPW 2007 Resurfacing Plan. If this is related to the $4M allocated to infrastructure improvements in the Biocrossroads area then this is a huge waste of that money. Is this segment of Indiana really related to Biocrossroads? What businesses in this stretch are bio-related? My impression is that they want bio-development on Indiana north of 10th St.
  3. Usually when a project like this happens, signs are put up well in advance to warn drivers that there will be lane closures, etc. Signs indicating "Construction Zone Ahead" (or something similar) were put up yesterday afternoon.
  4. Work began during the height of the morning rush hour. I realize the work is going to be done and you can't possibly avoid every rush hour while the project is on-going, but couldn't they have delayed the project a couple hours this morning to let the crush of cars that arrive at the IUPUI campus around 9am pass?
  5. There was construction equipment all over the road and no signs indicating to drivers that lanes were closed. There weren't even flag-men out to direct cars!
  6. One or the other Southbound lane has been closed while they chew up the existing asphalt, yet they allowed cars to continue parking in the curb-side Northbound lane. This is inexcusable -- what idiot is running this project?! They should have just closed both Southbound lanes and made it one lane each direction on the two Northbound lanes.

This is a bumbling mess right now. Here's hoping they get it done with quickly.

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