Westfield’s plans just keep getting grander

With grand construction projects in the works on either side of U.S. 31 in Westfield, leaders are working on plans for a signature bridge spanning State Road 32 at the heart of the growing city.

Preliminary designs presented to City Council members last month show 100-foot towers at the northwest and southeast edges of the overpass, a key gateway to the community that will become even more important when the state's $600 million U.S. 31 overhaul is complete in 2015.

A few miles northwest of the interchange, crews are busy transforming 400 acres of farmland into the Grand Park Sports Campus, a $42 million city effort to establish Westfield as a hub for youth sports that opens next year (and already drawing a $225 million commercial development in the works nearby). Back in the other direction, the $20 million Grand Junction downtown redevelopment initiative is gaining momentum.

Two years in the making, the so-called "Towers of Westfield" are intended to be a community icon, according to the Indianapolis Star's Dan McFeeley. Early estimates put the towers' total price tag at $750,000 to $2 million, McFeeley's story said. The project would be funded with proceeds of the city's proposed $91 million sale of its water utilities to Citizens Energy.

Check out a PDF of Westfield's work-in-progress plans from the May 13 council meeting, then weigh in: What do you make of the idea?