Construction of the West Washington Street bridge over Little Eagle Creek has been ongoing for about five months, disrupting people’s commutes through the west side and blocking one of the most direct routes to downtown Indianapolis.
While the $2.5-million construction was projected to end in late September, city officials say the delays could last for another year.
The headaches will continue for commuters, but for some business owners just east of the bridge construction site the construction delay is more than a nuisance — it’s a devastating blow they worry could put them out of business.
“Most of our customers have been people that are heading in the direction of the airport or are coming downtown,” said Frankie Meza, owner of Halcon Motors on West Washington Street, in an interview conducted in Spanish. “If that path is cut off (for a longer amount of time), we’re not going to have customers. We’re going to have a problem.”
Department of Public Works crews recently found that the bridge was less structurally sound than engineers initially believed. Now, officials say, the additional work needed will cause construction to last well into summer 2025.
“We discovered that the internal structural bridge components were in worse shape than observed and expected,” Kyle Bloyd, the department’s spokesman, told Mirror Indy. “We’ve made a difficult but proactive decision — we’re going to expand the scope of the work in order to extend the life of this bridge.”
The work will extend the life of the approximately 100-foot bridge by another 25 to 50 years by installing waterproofing elements, patching stone in the arch and constructing new pavement, sidewalks and bridge railing.
The work will also extend the length of time commuters will have to endure a 2.5-mile detour around the construction site, which extends from the intersection of West Washington Street and Rockville Road to the portion of West Washington Street just east of Little Eagle Creek.
During the Washington Street bridge construction, westbound traffic is detoured along Tibbs Avenue, Michigan Street and Holt Road, according to a map published by IndyGo March 26, 2024. Credit: IndyGo 
During the Washington Street bridge construction, eastbound traffic on Washington Street is detoured Holt and Cossell roads and Tibbs Avenue, according to a map published by IndyGo March 26, 2024. Credit: IndyGo
The bridge construction could also affect the timeline of the IndyGo Blue Line project, which is expected to begin construction early next year and go over the bridge.
District 17 City-County Councilor Jared Evans, who represents the area of the bridge, said he would work with DPW and IndyGo to push for new construction scheduled for early 2025 to happen as early as possible.
“I know this is going to be a huge frustration and obstacle for many. I realize that the closure prevents nearby residents from easily accessing churches, grocery stores and jobs,” Evans said in a Facebook post last week. “I am sorry for the additional headache.”
Businesses in peril
Halcon Motors is located a few hundred feet east of Little Eagle Creek. Meza, 37, opened the business in 2011 after learning the trade from his father-in-law.
Meza, who says running the dealership is more than a job — “it’s something that I get to do” — shares his enthusiasm with customers. Every time he sells a car, he presents the vehicle to the new owner with a large bow on top.
Now, he says, the few bows he has left are gathering dust.
“In the last month, we’ve only sold one car,” Meza said. “I think all the businesses here in this area are going to end up closing. You can’t stay open if you don’t have sales.”
Meza said that businesses like his require foot traffic from potential customers in order to make sales. The bridge construction has made it much harder for customers to see their selection of vehicles.
“If they could just open one lane, it would be very helpful to us,” Meza said. “We only sell because of foot traffic. All of us here (west of the intersection of North Tibbs Avenue and West Washington Street) are in the same position. That’s about 10 businesses, easily.”
The bridge construction delays are also affecting the businesses of Kevin Singh, who owns a convenience store at 3127 W. Washington St. and opened the Manhattan Liquor store next to it on Aug. 14.
Singh moved to Indianapolis from New York four years ago to open his business. Singh said that his convenience store immediately felt the negative effects of the road closure when the Department of Public Works closed it for repairs in March.
“In the first month, we saw a 50% decline in gross revenues,” he said.
Singh expects the extension of the road closure will cause his business to suffer even more. It’s simple economics.
“I still have to keep the electricity on for 24 hours. I still have to keep the water running. I still have to keep certain things running. I still have my mortgage, I still have my property taxes that don’t change, and I still have to pay my employees to stay there for that same amount of time while the revenue is not there. So my net income, what I’m making and taking home, is significantly affected,” Singh said.
Singh said the construction is making him rethink his investment here and could be preventing other people from investing in the west side.
“I would have not put my money here as an investor. I would have taken my money elsewhere if I knew there was going to be construction work for this long,” Singh said.
Asking for assistance
Singh is hopeful that city leaders like Councilor Evans can provide financial help in order to keep them afloat. He hopes to gather support from other businesses in the area to ask Evans to sponsor some sort of tax relief from the city, like tax abatement or property tax credits.
“I’d like them to help with levies, taxes, property taxes or something like that,” Singh said. “I still have to keep my business open, but now I’m not getting all the traffic because of the city.”
Evans did not respond to a request for comment left Tuesday.
Without that help, business owners may not be able to afford to stay open.
“I really don’t know if we’ll be able to support ourselves for that long,” Meza said. “We have everything we need to succeed — a full inventory, publicity and more. But I don’t see how we’ll be able to afford paying rent, payroll and other bills without some help.”
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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