Home » Transportation

Transportation

Articles

Guidelines target design of downtown development: New rules will protect urban character, supporters say

Downtown developments soon will come under extra scrutiny, once new design guidelines are approved in the spring. Known as Urban Design Indianapolis, the process of developing the criteria fell on the shoulders of several groups: the Department of Metropolitan Development, Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana, Ball State University’s architectural school and the Urban Design Oversight Committee. The intent is not to mandate to developers that their buildings meet certain design standards, but rather that the cosmetics coalesce with the existing…

Read More

Cross-border investment in real estate on the rise: Local brokerages playing a role in growing trend

In 2006, $645 billion was sunk into real estate investments across the globe, according to a recent Cushman & Wakefield report. Of that, $187 billion was sent across borders to invest. And companies everywhere are chasing the most cost-effective spots to locate factories and needed hubs for office space. With all that cash changing hands, several locally based companies have made sure they’re positioned to help play a part. Take Indianapolis-based HDG Mansur, for example. In the field for 25…

Read More

Airport considering air cargo facility

Indianapolis airport officials are considering building a smaller version of FedEx’s 2-million-square-foot hub here, one
that could accommodate several cargo carriers from around the globe. The “international air cargo facility” could be up to
several hundred thousand square feet large and could cost tens of millions of dollars to build.

Read More

BEHIND THE NEWS: Private equity fever fuels talk of Brightpoint buyout

Brightpoint Inc. shares have shed 60 percent of their value since April 2006. But the distributor and logistics provider for the wireless phone industry continues to turn a tidy profit, and in recent months has cut a flurry of deals that bode well for the future. Don’t think the nation’s private equity fund managers haven’t noticed. Flush with billions of dollars to invest, they’re poring through spreadsheets in search of undervalued acquisition targets. So no one should be surprised that…

Read More

Forensic engineering firm seeks defense work: New initiative hopes to help other local firms follow in Wolf Technical’s footsteps

After 30 years in the forensic-engineering business, Wolf Technical Services Inc. has analyzed everything from deadly car crashes to patent infringement. Now, Indianapolis-based Wolf is hoping to diversify into a new area: federal defense contracting. It’s a field local corporate leaders hope Indiana will tap much more frequently in the years to come. “We don’t quite know at the moment where this could lead,” said Wolf Director of Client Relations Joseph Ward. “And that’s the fun part.” The 30-employee Wolf’s…

Read More

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Earmarking taxes in vogue, but is it good state policy?

I was taught economics, and in particular, the subject of public finance, by a faculty dominated by old Kennedy Democrats. A lot of that teaching has rubbed off or has simply been forgotten. Much of it also could be dismissed as idealism, a sort of ivory-tower thinking not relevant to the real world. Yet as I scan and digest the various tax proposals now in front of the Indiana General Assembly, several of those old lessons keep coming to my…

Read More

Alternative commuting gaining traction, slowly: Discounted vanpool fees offered during I-70 project

Only road contractors, Ruth Reiman and the Devil himself are welcoming interstate reconstruction that could cause mass chaos for east-side commuters this year. For Reiman and her team at Central Indiana Commuter Services, the $175 million Interstate 70 project starting Feb. 25 might be the best recruiting tool since stratospheric gasoline prices a year ago. “I’m just waiting for them to hit the first lane closure,” said Reiman, executive director of federally funded CICS. CICS-rhymes with kicks-hopes to lure lone…

Read More

VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: Saving Hoosier lives depends on telemedicine technology

If you find yourself in need of advanced medical care, the Indianapolis area represents one of the best places to live. Superb resources at the nationally ranked Indiana University Hospital, St. Vincent, the Riley Hospital for Children and a whole host of other Indianapolis based medical facilities will effectively meet the challenge of providing worldclass health services. But if you live or work outside the capital city, securing life-saving services may be a different matter. The last national census disclosed…

Read More

Aviation school adds five degree programs: Embry-Riddle considered closing local campus

One of the nation’s most prominent aviation schools is giving Indianapolis another chance. After withstanding a plunge in enrollment, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University is adding five degree programs at its center here, with most of them aimed at careers outside the turbulent commercial aviation sector. It also plans to expand beyond its local student base of mostly working adults to court recent high school grads. Though in Indianapolis for 13 years, Embry-Riddle has had all the profile here of a stealth…

Read More

‘Road to ruin’ project may offer exit to businesses: City says INDOT may crack open exit on Interstate 70 for delivery vehicles during reconstruction project

The Indiana Department of Transportation may yet allow a partial opening of one or two Interstate 70 interchanges on the east side during a 10-month reconstruction of the main artery between downtown and Interstate 465. City-County Councilor Mary Moriarty Adams said she’s been talking with INDOT officials and with Mayor Bart Peterson in recent days about the potential harm to businesses of having all the interchanges closed. “We’re hopeful that we can have some exit and/or on ramps open at…

Read More

College targets dropouts with new program: Ivy Tech offers high school failures chance to get degree, pursue higher education

Ivy Tech Community College this month launched a pilot program that allows high school dropouts to earn their diplomas while simultaneously working toward a certificate or associate’s degree in college. Intended to improve the state’s labor pool, and as a lifeline to dropouts facing a dismal life in the earnings underclass, it will first be rolled out in Bloomington, Lafayette and Terre Haute. The Indianapolis campus also will offer the program aimed at those 19 or older, although a date…

Read More

Labor sector diversification could spur local economy: $200,000 study targets finance, retail and construction

Sexier industry sectors like life sciences or motorsports get all the press. But to remain robust, the Indianapolis Private Industry Council believes, the area economy needs diversification. The 23-year-old work-force-training not-for-profit believes the nine-county area also should target three tried-and-true industries: finance and insurance; retail, hospitality and restaurants; and construction. IPIC, whose $9 million annual budget comes from public and private grants, plans to spend $200,000 during the first quarter studying the three sectors, which collectively employ 270,000 people in…

Read More

EYE ON THE PIE: In 2007, sweat the little things

This time of the year, serious people make serious resolutions about important matters; people like me, experienced and lacking determination, avoid resolutions. If, however, I were to recommend resolutions to business and government leaders, my list could be condensed into this: Attend to the little things. For too long, we have heard the preaching of management gurus and public-policy mavens that we must keep our eyes focused on the bigger issues. If you are a decision maker, you are supposed…

Read More

CICP’s chief launches raft of initiatives:

In January, Mark Miles returned to Indianapolis after more than a decade at the helm of the Association of Tennis Professionals to become CEO of the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership. Twelve months later, the CICP looks much different than it did under his predecessor David Goodrich. And it could soon change even more. A former Eli Lilly and Co. executive and aide to Dan Quayle, Miles, 53, has been one of the key players in the potential consolidation of the…

Read More

Business shoved aside: Readers say city should focus on crime, education in 2007

The brutal murders of seven family members, including three children shot dead in their east-side Indianapolis home, cast a dark cloud over the city last summer. Yet the June slayings only served as a harbinger of a wave of violence that later claimed 15 lives in a 10-day span. The crime spree rattled city leaders so severely that Mayor Bart Peterson declared an emergency normally reserved for a natural disaster. 2006 no doubt ranked among the most deadly years in…

Read More

INVESTING: No need to fret over sputtering transport stocks

Recent weakness in a major U.S. stock index has some experts and investors calling the bear out of hibernation. The Dow Jones Industrial Average probably is more closely followed than any other market indicator in the world, but the index creating the stir is the Dow Jones Transportation Index. The creator of these indicators, Charles Dow, saw them as a means to get a quick understanding of the general economic conditions in America. Today, market analysts combine the two into…

Read More

Payne blazed Cultural Trail:

Inspiration struck Brian Payne in 2001 while he was walking the Monon Trail. He remembered a conversation in which city officials lamented that downtown streets were too wide and cars moved too fast to allow much of a pedestrian connection town’s top attractions. between down- His brainstorm: Eliminate lanes of traffic and build a path-creating an amenity that could become a destination in itself. Payne, president of the Central Indiana Community Foundation, began telling everyone he knew about the idea….

Read More

EYE ON THE PIE: It is time to accept I-69 and move on

I don’t want to write this column; you don’t want to read it. Yet, I must respond to the diehards who insist that building Interstate 69 (and almost any other road) will be detrimental to our state. Several economic and environmental studies support the Bloomington-Crane-Washington-Petersburg route to Evansville. Yet, time after time, supporters of the Terre Haute-Sullivan-Vincennes-Princeton route rise up and demand a reconsideration of the path. The Terre Haute crowd is afraid it will lose something if the Bloomington…

Read More

VIEWPOINT: The Commerce Connector in perspective

As one who navigates the tangle of roads at interstates 69 and 465 frequently, my first reaction to the proposed Indiana Commerce Connector was positive-anything to relieve that mess. Looking at a map and considering, for example, a more direct connection between inter states 69 and 70 east of the city seems to make perfect sense. There are many questions to be answered, however, before the state should make a commitment to it. In considering such a major project, it…

Read More

Residents say safety is a growing concern: Survey: Fewer feel comfortable downtown after dark

Most central Indiana residents feel safe in downtown Indianapolis when the sun is out, but remain leery of the city at night, according to a study by the IUPUI Department of Tourism, Conventions and Event Management. The annual study, which is designed to gauge the impact of cultural tourism on quality of life, gives the city high marks overall in areas ranging from cultural attractions to cleanliness, public transportation to parking. But it also shows the city has more work…

Read More