Georgia Street Improvement

In the heart of downtown Indianapolis, a streetscape project transformed a four lane roadway into a two-lane, mixed-use event plaza. A three-block section of Georgia Street that connects the newly expanded Indiana Convention Center to Bankers Life Fieldhouse has been uniquely re-purposed. During special events, such as Super Bowl XLVI, the shared-use space will accommodate vendors, performance stages and pavilions. The project provides an innovative and sustainable model for managing stormwater in an urban setting. The street’s unique, curbless design was completed in just seven months and adhered to federal, state and local standards. The transformation, including the center boardwalk and catenary light system with roman shades, has made Georgia Street one of the most unique urban street/plaza spaces in the nation and will contribute greatly to Indy’s downtown revitalization.

As a subconsultant to Crawford, Murphy & Tilly, Inc. (CMT), Infrastructure Engineering, Inc. (IEI) provided traffic design and engineering services for the project. Tasks included Maintenance of Traffic Plans requiring coordination with multiple stakeholders including planned conventions with specific pedestrian requirements, traffic signal modifications, pavement markings, and signing. Unique elements included the use of durable decorative pavement markings at crossing to increase aesthetic and pedestrian safety, eliminating left turns at major intersections, allowing pedestrian crossing across median of Georgia Street through intersections, and creative us of pavers as pavement markings. IEI also provided the structural design for basement top slab below sidewalks, basement backfills, cast-in-place utility vaults, the preliminary structural design of the catenary lighting system and the foundation design for the catenary light pole foundations, and the foundation and anchoring design for special event staging.