Over the past three years, the Indianapolis Department of Public Works has helped neighborhoods across the city install tactical urbanism projects, which are temporary traffic barriers designed to help slow drivers and keep pedestrians safe.
Kyle Bloyd, a communications specialist with the department, said many of the community-led initiatives are planned in areas that don’t have a lot of crashes but are still dangerous.
“Everyone knows those spots where people push things a little bit too far, maybe they take a corner too quickly,” Bloyd said. “This is a great way for people to push for action on those things that they know happen in their neighborhoods, that traffic engineers aren’t necessarily going to pick up on.”
The projects are typically installed for a few months to determine which permanent solutions should be constructed. But, it can take three to five years before a community sees permanent structures. For example, a tactical urbanism project along 10th Street in the Community Heights neighborhood was completed in 2023. The city won’t begin construction on its permanent traffic calming infrastructure until 2028.
To bridge that gap, the city is rolling out a quick-build program to provide semi-permanent traffic barriers before a full infrastructure project is installed.
Chris Davner is the city’s project manager for strategy and technology for the Department of Public Works. She said the quick-build projects will look similar to the temporary solutions, such as bollards — which look like tall, thin traffic cones — but they will be bolted into the roadway instead of using temporary weighted bases.
“We’re mimicking the project, but we’re not coming in with concrete just yet,” Davner said.
Quick-build projects will be located near Little Flower on the near east side; 10th and Park and 10th and Broadway near Chatham Arch; St. Thomas Aquinas School at 46th and Illinois; 52nd and the Monon Trail; and Fountain Square.
Davner hopes the quick-build projects will be installed by the end of its construction season in fall 2026.
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Mirror Indy reporter Elizabeth Gabriel covers the south side of Marion County. Contact her at elizabeth.gabriel@mirrorindy.org. Follow her on X at @_elizabethgabs.
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