IndyStar: 'Game-changer': Pedestrian improvements coming to South Meridian Street

Read the full story by Kayla Dwyer here.

In less than two years, South Meridian Street just outside downtown Indianapolis will look very different.

What is now a busy four-lane thoroughfare through a residential neighborhood, the Old Southside, will become a more people-centered avenue, with fewer lanes for cars and more protected walking space once a $7 million project is complete.

"People are biking and walking day in and day out" on Meridian Street, said resident Sarah Roberts, who is a board member of the Old Southside Neighborhood Association. "So it could be a game-changer."

Mayor Joe Hogsett joined Roberts and other city officials to break ceremonial ground on the project Wednesday, which he said is part of a broader push toward more neighborhood-focused infrastructure investments in the city.

This infrastructure work, spanning from Arizona to McCarty streets, is part of a series of projects in the Old Southside over the past several years, funded through the city's Lift Indy initiative. Neighborhoods apply to be part of the initiative, and the city has chosen one or two neighborhoods a year to funnel federal dollars into improvements, such as affordable housing, placemaking and infrastructure.