For months, Mollie Baldwin wanted to work at the Dollar General store along West Morris Street, but a 2-year long road project made that impossible because the bus couldn’t get through.
“When it was being fixed, the bus didn’t come down this road,” Baldwin said, “so it kind of (stunk) for a while. But it’s better now.”
The fortunes of West Indy residents like Baldwin and area businesses changed this month when workers wrapped up the $10-million West Morris Street Revitalization. The improved roadway, in fact, is nearly unrecognizable from its past. And the bus is coming down the road again, helping Baldwin land that job.
“Now that you see the new (street), you just don’t even remember the old one, but I do know the sidewalks are a whole lot bigger and the roads are better,” Baldwin said.
City officials celebrated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday at the Mary Rigg Neighborhood Center, saying the West Morris Street project, along with the nearby $43-million Henry Street Bridge project, would help connect westside communities to planned developments in West Indianapolis and across the White River to downtown.
The project improved lanes and traffic signals, and added storm sewers, left-hand turning lanes, street lights and a trail.
City-County Councilor Kristin Jones, who represents the area, said the improvements will help the neighborhood step out of the doldrums it has been in since the closure of the General Motors stamping plant and other industrial facilities in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Soon, the neighborhood will host the Elanco Animal Health global headquarters, the Indiana Economic Development Corp.’s LEVEE Collaborative Hub and the White River State Park expansion.
The projects look like they will change the fate of West Indy, which has for decades suffered from the loss of its manufacturing centers. About 35% of the West Indianapolis population lives below the poverty line.
“When the (GM plant) closed, it was dreary and depressing,” Jones said. “Now I feel like the tides have turned, people want to open businesses here and young families are moving in.”
Construction problems
The West Morris Street project was scheduled to begin in 2021 but faced several delays due to unforeseen circumstances, including the COVID-19 pandemic, on and off bad weather and rougher-than-anticipated road conditions.
When work finally began in spring 2022, engineers found that work in previous decades had caused the asphalt at the edge of the road to erode. Crews had to remove the old concrete pavement and rebuild it.
The repairs forced DPW to close half of the street and limit travel to westbound-only. It also delayed the completion of the project by more than a year.
“It was really tough on the businesses,” Jones said, “but I knew that eventually there would be a light at the end of the tunnel, and we could get through it.”
Barry Doss, owner of Barry’s Pizza and Wings, said the construction hit his restaurant especially hard, dropping his income by about $6,000 a month this year compared to 2023.
His restaurant’s side of the street was the last portion shut down for construction. His delivery drivers had a difficult time navigating construction, and customers couldn’t make it inside his parking lot to pick up orders.
“People couldn’t figure out what to do, so they said, ‘To hell with it,’” Doss said. “I got stuck with so many pizzas that people couldn’t come pick up to eat.”
Though the construction was painful for him, he said he believes it will help improve West Indianapolis in the long run.
“It did beautify the area quite a bit,” Doss said.
Mirror Indy reporter Enrique Saenz covers west Indianapolis. Contact him at 317-983-4203 or enrique.saenz@mirrorindy.org. Follow him on X @heyEnriqueSaenz or on Bluesky at @enriquesaenz.bsky.social.
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