Long’s Bakery in Haughville has been Indianapolis’ premier place for donuts, pies, cakes and pastries for the past seven decades.
The sweet treats made at the westside staple have inspired songs and art, but a more telling testament to the bakery’s draw is that people are willing to travel long distances across the city to get to it.
“I come here every time I’m this way,” said Dee Jones, an eastside resident who visited the bakery April 2. “Sometimes, I just need a yeast doughnut or something.”
Jones’ route to get a sweet treat is about to get more complicated. The nearly 80-year-old 16th Street Bridge over the White River is set to close for about two years beginning June 1. The Department of Public Works contractors will repair and replace portions of the bridge, including a complete replacement of the bridge deck, the surface of the bridge people drive over while crossing it.
Haughville residents and business owners, including Long’s Bakery co-owner Robby Smith, are concerned about the effects the bridge closure will have on peoples’ commutes and businesses along 16th Street.
“It’s a high traffic area,” Smith said. “You take away something like that, and it can be detrimental to a business.”
Short-term closures of the 16th Street Bridge and nearby streets cause up to a 20% dip in sales, Smith said. Longer closures could affect the business’ bottom line even more.
And if Long’s Bakery can feel the pain, imagine what smaller businesses would feel, said Haughville business owner Aaron Williams.
“People’s livelihoods are going to be jeopardized significantly,” said Williams, whose family owns the Nest Event Center and the Haughville Shared Kitchen.
Concerns about a long-term closure
More than a hundred westside residents and business owners gathered at the Friendship Missionary Baptist Church April 2 to discuss how the bridge closure would affect them and to petition DPW director Todd Wilson to keep the bridge partially open during construction.
At a meeting with Haughville residents and business owners in early March, Wilson said DPW would consider alternatives to a full closure. But Wilson later decided that wasn’t possible due to safety concerns.
Westside resident speaks April 2, 2026, during a town hall about concerns with the upcoming 16th Street Bridge project at Friendship Missionary Baptist Church. Speakers included Westside Neighborhood Association president and Wayne Township board member Doris Minton McNeill (top left); State Sen. Greg Taylor (bottom left). Credit: Alli Cook for Mirror Indy
Hours before the April 2 meeting, Wilson sent a press release that said DPW would continue with plans to close the bridge due to safety concerns. Instead, DPW would add more workers, authorize weekend construction work and dedicate more supervision to minimize downtime at the bridge in order to finish the repairs as quickly as possible.
“To keep the bridge open to traffic during construction poses too many risks and a number of major utilities are active in the bridge deck which must be temporarily relocated on the bridge deck during construction, limiting the available space for traffic while keeping construction workers safe. Indy DPW cannot compromise on safety for this project,” Wilson said in a press release.
Residents are worried the 16th Street Bridge project could face delays, like other westside bridge projects, including the Washington Street Bridge over Little Eagle Creek, which closed for more than a year longer than expected, and the 30th Street Bridge, which was closed for four years, nearly double what was expected.
“Anything over a day of closure is a concern to us, so two years is not friendly to us at all. But two years can turn into four years because of some structural issues or a utility line or something,” Smith said. “The 30th Street Bridge got delayed because of barn swallows. I mean, anything can happen.”
DPW bridge design program manager Keith Echternach said the project is not as complex as the 30th Street Bridge reconstruction project, so similar delays are unlikely. The 30th Street Bridge’s historic designation required crews to take more care and time reconstructing it.
Residents said this isn’t the end of their fight and that they would petition the city’s decision-makers to leave parts of the bridge open during construction, like it did for projects on Lafayette Road and West Kessler Boulevard. This would help prevent damage to business and what residents fear could be fatal delays in medical care, they said.
“If they can do it in other areas, then they ought to be able to do the same thing here,” said Pastor Ronald Covington, of the Friendship Missionary Baptist Church. “We want the city of Indianapolis to hear us, to hear our prayer, because what they’re attempting to do is going to affect you.”
According to DPW chief communications officer Kyle Bloyd, the difference is the bridge design.
“Not every bridge is the same width, same material, same age,” he said. “When we went to the experts, all the information that we got back was that this would be unsafe to construction workers and the general public. If you start tearing up concrete on a bridge, it becomes less strong. So, allowing people on it, that weight on it, you produce a risk that no one on our team felt was acceptable.”
Bridge repairs needed
The 16th Street Bridge project will rehabilitate the bridge to extend its life, and one of the most important repairs will be to the bridge deck.
“The existing bridge actually has a concrete deck, but it’s been covered with asphalt over the years, which is crumbling and in really poor shape,” said Echternach.
Lanes on the bridge are marked by the black lines of asphalt crack sealing and the fill used to cover potholes. It’s a bumpy crossing for most, but the fill doesn’t just prevent pothole damage to vehicles. It also prevents rain from damaging the bridge from the inside.
“When it rains, you see infiltration into the archfill and through the arch and the substructure units below the bridge,” Echternach said. “That kind of infiltration advances the deterioration or accelerates it. And so it’s urgent that we get the project going now.”
Photos show the underside of the 16th Street Bridge over the White River March 31, 2026, and vehicles crossing the damaged deck of the bridge April 2, 2026. Credit: Enrique Saenz/Mirror Indy
The project would also add a High-Intensity Activated Crosswalk on the eastern portion of the bridge that will stop traffic for pedestrians crossing the Central White River Trail.
The bridge repair was slated to begin in 2024, but was pushed back until the 30th Street Bridge was reopened after years of delays. That bridge opened in March, but the full project won’t be completed until May.
Beaty Construction, the Boggstown, Indiana-based company currently building the Henry Street Bridge in West Indianapolis, will do the work. The company also worked on the Nickel Plate over 96th Street Pedestrian Bridge and Trail Connection in Fishers and the Bur Oak Bridge at Hazel Landing Park between Fishers and Carmel.
Resident campaign continues
More than 1,200 people have signed an online petition to keep the bridge open. Residents say they want to hear why the bridge can’t remain open directly from Wilson.
“We’re not against the bridge being rehabbed, but we are against them doing it at the expense of businesses that have been here for ages and not caring about their employees or our children,” Williams said.
District 12 Councilor Vop Osili, who represents Haughville and is running for Indianapolis mayor, supports efforts to keep the bridge partially open.
“I’m an architect, and so when someone says that something is impossible, my question is, ‘Then show me.’ Show me how it is impossible, and then let us look for the means and the methods by which we overcome that particular obstacle,” Osili said.
Wilson was invited to the April 2 town hall meeting, but did not attend. Bloyd said that was due to an invitation being extended to him on short notice. He will attend a community meeting 4 p.m. April 7 at The Nest Event Center to discuss the project.
In the meantime, Williams, Covington and other Haughville community members have launched a campaign to convince Wilson to change his mind on the full bridge closure. They’re planning on getting residents to call and email his office directly.
“Tell them how you feel. That’s how you get things done. You matter, and your voice matters,” Williams said.
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Mirror Indy reporter Enrique Saenz covers west Indianapolis. Contact him at 317-983-4203 or enrique.saenz@mirrorindy.org. Follow him on Bluesky at @enriquesaenz.bsky.social.
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