Key Facts and FAQs

The answer is yes!

Another critical question is whether financing strategies exist to help close the upfront cost difference (about 26%) between the two designs so we can get the long-term benefits of the right kind of investment and avoid the long-term costs and downsides of rebuilding as is.

The South Leg presents an excellent case study for how to finance a recessed concept.  A recessed option on the South Leg would cost about $195m more upfront than the rebuild-as-is concept.  That leg of the interstate also represents about 23 acres of land that could be reclaimed from under the interstate.

The Arup team explored a conservative scenario in which 70% of those 23 acres were used to finance the recessed option—land sales for those parcels would bring in $35 million, and using tax increment financing or special assessment districts, that acreage could be feasibly leveraged to generate $160 million. There are surely other/better alternatives to consider. Again, all these estimates are in 2020 dollars, but you get the point.

The bottom line is that smart value-capture financing strategies could completely or mostly close the upfront cost gap between the two options and give us transformative returns—financial, health, equity, housing, livability, workforce/talent development, and so many others—from that investment over the next 50 years. Again, we must do the very best cost/benefit analysis and come up with a solid solution, as other forward-thinking cities all over the country are now doing. The Arup study gives us a head start.

It is a giant step forward. The Study will give us a plan for building a cap that will reconnect communities in the SE Gateway Project Area and set the stage for rebuilding other parts of the Inner Loop with recessed and capped construction.

• In early 2023, the Rethink Coalition, in partnership with the City of Indianapolis, the Indy Chamber, INDOT, and 60+ additional stakeholders received a $2M federal planning grant to study design possibilities that would reconnect communities separated and harmed by previously constructed highways.

• This planning study will focus on the southeast portion of the I-65/70 interstates (inside I-465) between Washington Street and Virginia Avenue – called the SE Gateway.

• The study, which will be released in the fall of 2025, will look at new reconstruction needed, barriers to community connectivity, how to restore community connectivity, and project readiness and feasibility.

• Indianapolis, through Rethink, is one of only eight cities nationwide to receive the full federal grant amount.  Because of this, Central Indiana is poised to become a leader in reconnecting communities and unleashing economic potential, innovation, and transformation.

• The SE Gateway study can be used as a model for future recessing of the interstates—the “Inner Loop”—in the core of the City, which was shown as technically and economically feasible, according to Rethink’s original feasibility study funded by the Lilly Endowment in 2019.

• In fall 2024, Rethink, INDOT, and the City applied for a follow-on larger USDOT reconnecting communities grant. If awarded, this grant will allow us to move forward with this more detailed planning and technical design of the SE Gateway project.

• All of us should be encouraged by the federal planning grant—we were one of the few cities to receive a grant, and now it’s on our collective shoulders to make the transformative vision a reality in that study. We can’t lose this opportunity.

Yes, it’s all doable and transforming. Rethink’s original feasibility study, funded by the Lilly Endowment, shows that recessing the interstates is not only technically and economically feasible, but will have breathtakingly positive benefits from the investment:

• 80+ acres available for just development

• Reconnected communities and neighbors, with better transportation

• Healthier, cleaner, more beautiful environment

• A more walkable and bikeable city, truly world-class

Rethink’s planning work at the SE Gateway will help us think about how recessed construction can transform the Northwest Gateway, the West Street connection, and the Southside. This is critical for IU Indianapolis, Purdue in Indianapolis, IU Health, residents, other key stakeholders in the area, for whom the disconnected landscape creates major walkability, safety, traffic congestion, and access challenges.

Yes and yes! Cities, big and small, near and far, have tackled projects like this with interstate caps, stitches, and even tunnels. It’s not only practical, but as the Rethink’s visionary studies have shown, it’s the preferred solution for us. Rethink can show you what cities like Columbus, OH, Cincinnati, OH, St. Louis, MO, Dallas, TX, Boston, MA, and others have done to recess their interstates.

What impact would a recessed interstate have on the efficiency of cars and trucks traveling to or through Indianapolis? Will we still be the Crossroads of America?

Rethink Coalition’s vision for recessing the interstates will not reduce thru-traffic capacity. Instead, it will have a positive impact on traffic flow by modifying entrance and exit ramps, providing more separation between local and thru traffic, increasing the distance between points where drivers have to make decisions, and reducing dangerous weaving patterns. All of this makes regional and local traffic safer and more efficient. Recessing the interstates will improve our position as the Crossroads of America.

Rethink Coalition is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. A majority of the Board is appointed by three supported organizations—Indy Chamber, Indiana Landmarks, and CICF/Indianapolis Foundation. Rethink is a broad-based, community-centered non-profit whose job it is to transform Central Indiana into a world class place where people want to live, work, learn, play, and stay! We’re into economic development, transformation, innovation, inspiration, and making Indianapolis a true world class city worthy of the name “Crossroads of America.”

Rethink is working hard through its Board, its Advisors, and its consultants to connect with leaders, stakeholders, residents, and institutions of all kinds to explain the overwhelming positives from recessing the elevated Inner Loop interstates. We want to include the voices of all residents in the planning process about how to improve our community.

Yes, with the support of the community, the expertise of our technical team, and the trust of the U.S. Department of Transportation, which awarded a sizeable planning grant to develop Rethink’s concept for one section of the Inner Loop we are calling our “Southeast Gateway,” where the interstate is already partially recessed.

Rethink is also actively engaged with improving INDOT’s proposed design for the South Split (called the “I-65 Safety & Efficiency Project”). Rethink’s involvement is a model of community engagement in which the corridor’s stakeholders worked with Rethink’s technical advisors to develop recommendations for the I-65 SAFE project, looking at how to leverage INDOT’s planned investment to reconnect districts and neighborhoods tragically separated by the interstate corridor. This is a test and model for future collaboration for rebuilding the Inner Loop.

The Arup feasibility analysis, conducted 2020-21 with financial support from the Lilly Endowment, concluded that a Rethink-style recessed option, with all its attendant benefits, would cost $2.8 billion to build in 2020 dollars for the full Inner Loop (i.e. other than the already reconstructed North Split).

That amount included the recessed interstate freeway, multi-modal boulevard system, restored connections between neighborhoods and downtown, strategic capping and stitching, reduced noise and air pollution, and a chance to address historic inequities by equitably redeveloping surrendered land.

The rebuild-as-is option would cost $2.3 billion to build in 2020 dollars.  That amount covers modest safety improvement to comply with today’s design standards, but beyond that, essentially identical infrastructure to what we see today.

So, it is a certainty that significant upfront sums will be spent to replace this infrastructure one way or another in the next 10-15 years.  The real question is, which design will generate from that initial expenditure the most value for Indianapolis, the region, and the state over the next two generations?  That value may be in the formof (1) reduced highway maintenance expenses, (2) healthcare savings derived from improved greenspaces, tree coverage, air quality, noise reduction, and pedestrian activity, and (3) new land development opportunities improving the tax base.  We need a complete cost/benefit/value analysis!

It’s critical that we select a design that makes the most of taxpayer dollars, learns lessons from the past, and helps support the long-term recovery, resiliency, and growth of our city and region.

All solvable. There hasn’t been a major construction project in the county that hasn’t had to address water table issues, whether Pogue’s Run or others. We can do it—and have done it many times before. Technology today makes water table issues far less of a problem, including in those cities where recessed interstates have been successfully constructed near major rivers or oceans (e.g., Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Boston).

The Inner Loop is very long, compared to elevated interstates in other urban areas around the country. The lengthy rebuild process will stretch over a decade or more (including planning and design), not months. The construction of recessed interstates will require similar maintenance of traffic, as is required for other major interstate projects. Namely, that includes smart sequencing of lane closures and openings, temporary detours, and rerouting traffic around I-465 (remember also that there is no real impact on travel time for pass-through traffic that instead uses I-465).

As explained in earlier FAQs, the reconstruction of the Inner Loop in any scenario will require multiple phases of construction and partial closure, even under a rebuild-as-is scenario. The recessed interstate system Rethink envisions has a distinct advantage, however, because in most areas the proposed recessed highway trench would run along the edge of the existing interstate. The alignment of the trench may allow construction to occur with limited impact on the function of the existing interstate. Once the trench reaches a certain level of completion, traffic will be diverted to the trench in phases so that portions of the elevated interstate can be demolished.

Most of complete removals that have occurred or are being considered around the country have been highway spurs and other underutilized sections that aren’t as long as our Inner Loop and/or do not carry the same amount of traffic. Obviously, we should look at ways to reduce the impact of I-65/70 on an expanding population in and around Center Township. We need to work on making the interstate infrastructure less intrusive in the City’s quality of life—this is our once-in-two generation opportunity to do that.

Maintenance costs should be about the same. That’s because the overall scale of the infrastructure is comparable in either a recessed option or a rebuild as-is.

A rescue crew would respond to accidents the same way they do today on the elevated interstates: by entering the roadway via a ramp and driving to the crash site. The recessed interstate will have shoulders for emergencies just like any other interstate.  Meanwhile, the reconnected grid and boulevard system above the recessed highway will improve response times to many areas of the city by providing emergency vehicles with multiple routes to different locations, minimizing the possibility of traffic delays.

It will improve traffic flow. The Rethink’s vision of recessing the interstates should have a positive impact on traffic flow for regional traffic by modifying the system’s configuration on entry and exit ramps, increasing the distance between major decision points and reducing dangerous weaving patterns. Recessing the interstates will make us an even more world-class Crossroads of America.

Yes, that’s a challenge we need to work on. The railroads are a barrier to creating a recessed interstate on the East Leg of the Inner Loop, absent a major relocation of the railroads. This is one of the biggest planning challenges. That said, the City of Indianapolis has indicated that it wants to remove heavy rail from the city center. Further study is needed to understand how rail freight can be rerouted to the outer loop areas. Even though the long-term future of the rails is uncertain, the viability of recessed interstates on the North and South Legs is not impacted. So, a large percentage of the overall Rethink vision can be implemented regardless of the ultimate fate of the railroads. In short, now is the time to study all of these railroad-related issues, because rails have a significant [negative] impact on the future of many aspects of city life.

Absolutely not! We are creating improved access points at the corners of the Inner Loop along with a new multi-modal boulevard that increases connectivity between the interstate and the city core. Traffic flow and access will be improved.

Yes—with the understanding that the interstate needs to be elevated to cross over Fall Creek and the White River, which is obviously doable. The Rethink priority footprint for recessing the interstate and reconnecting neighborhoods extends up to 38th Street.

Yes, we offer a printable brochure you can use to explain why recessing the interstates is the best way to improve our long-term economic viability and ensure Central Indiana is positioned as a world-class region with a vibrant urban core for decades to come. The website has a lot of information about the Rethink Coalition and its vision for Indianapolis and Central Indiana.