The second leg of Indianapolis’ bus rapid transit system is a step closer to reality. IndyGo on Thursday announced it has awarded two contracts, totaling $113.8 million, for construction of the 15.2-mile Purple Line.
Bloomington-based general contractor Crider & Crider Inc., which has an Indianapolis office, landed a $95.6 million civil work package, which includes roads, sidewalks and drainage activity, according to IndyGo.
Indianapolis-based F.A. Wilhelm Construction Co. picked up an $18.2 million station construction and communication package. Wilhelm previously won a similar contract for IndyGo’s Red Line.
Crider & Crider’s previous work includes the Ruoff Music Center in Noblesville, College Mall in Bloomington and the Indianapolis Airport Midfield Terminal.
Wilhelm’s large body of work includes the Hoosier Dome, Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, JW Marriott Indianapolis and the Eskenazi Health downtown campus.
“We are excited to award these contracts to local companies with proven track records of producing excellent work,” said IndyGo president and CEO Inez Evans in written remarks. “With this announcement, we’re finally signaling the long-awaited green light to move full speed ahead with the faster, more efficient transit and long-overdue improvements and upgrades to infrastructure along the 38th Street corridor, improving the quality of life for riders and residents.”
Construction on the Purple Line is expected to begin in early 2022, made possible by an $81 million federal grant that IndyGo announced in August. The route will extend from downtown Indianapolis to Lawrence. The latest cost estimate for the line is $188 million,IndyGo said.
Other preparations for the new line are already under way. IndyGo got the OK from the City-County Council this week to take out $65 million in bonds to buy up to 30 new buses for the line and build a new full-service bus garage for them—among a list of projects.
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Can’t they use the empty busses that run the Red Line to run the Purple Line?
Maybe dismantle the Red Line bus stops too and rebuild on the Purple Line?
Just trying to think of ways to save money, so we can actually meet the needs of the community.
They can share buses between the Red Line as they’ll be the same.
The purple line already shares 12 stops with the red line.
The redline service proposition improves with each additional rapid transit leg added.
How would destroying almost $100 million of built infrastructure “save money?”
If you are truly concerned about “saving money,” then push the city & state to stop giving tax breaks and outright subsidies to billionaire sports team owners and profitable big corporations that are constantly showered with tax incentives and other public subsidies.
Bernard L – apparently you don’t know the vast majority of these costs are paid for with federal funds dedicated by the Dept. of Transportation for mass transit. The funds can’t be used for any other purpose.
The smartest thing Indy Metro did was to put dark tint on the bus windows. This prevents others from seeing most double busses are carrying one passenger most of the time. But, to accommodate this one passenger, traffic congestion was created by eliminating two lanes on the best north/south roads.
Secondly, when you say these are federal dollars they are actually taxpayers’ money being poorly allocated by the federal government. Hence, why many are reluctant to approve further tax increases, myself included.
It never cease to amaze me at how uneducated some folks are on the subject of how federal funds work, tax subsidies and incentives.People need to understand that these companies absolutely spend 100’s of millions to build their companies in communities and tax breaks are just one incentive to lure a company to the area versus competing cities.Remember how cities competed to lure Amazon second HQ?Cities are constantly competing for companies to relocate to their city and states.Cities aren’t just places people live but there also used to generate MONEY.If your city isn’t making money and attracting companies,then you no longer have a city.The purple line is a needed amenity that most cities Indy’s size our bigger all have.Its better to build it now and not have it when Indy starts to see even more growing pains.You don’t wait until you realize you need to provide a better busing system to build, by then its too late and expensive.
So it’s better to spend tax payer money on something that will be a failure?
By the way, I’m not for anyone getting tax breaks. Simplify the tax code by implementing a national sales tax.
Get rid of the IRS. Everyone pays 20% sales tax on everything( food, homes, cars). You keep 100% of your pay check and pay tax at the cash register. No one gets a tax break. You buy less, you pay less. No real estate tax either this way.
I know it will never happen, too simple and fair.
A flat tax is garbage policy that only benefits the wealthy. 20% of someone’s income who makes $30,000 a year is way more impactful than someone who makes a million dollars a year or more.