Indianapolis is rolling out what city leaders are calling roughly a $218 million push to repair and upgrade roads and drainage across the city, with a sweeping rebuild of Girls School Road on the west side headlining the list. The plan carves out tens of millions for stormwater work plus a separate, multi-million-dollar resurfacing and streetscape project along Girls School Road between North Perimeter Road and 21st Street. Officials say that work will bring heavy-duty pavement rehabilitation, a new multi-use path for people walking and biking, and landscaping meant to cut flooding and help the roadway last longer.
DPW lays out the numbers
In a Facebook post, the Indianapolis Department of Public Works said this level of funding "represents an ongoing commitment to delivering real, material improvements that keep our city moving," and broke out about $218 million in transportation investments paired with roughly $62 million for stormwater projects. The department listed several specific corridors and singled out Girls School Road as one of the major upcoming jobs, a hint at just how disruptive and visible that work is expected to be.
Girls School Road project details
City records label the Girls School Road work as project ST-29-020 and show that Indianapolis has already started securing property and right-of-way for reconstruction between North Perimeter Road and 21st Street. Planning materials describe a complete-streets style overhaul built around a consistent three-lane typical section with a buffered multi-use path, landscaped setbacks, and intersection upgrades designed to improve safety for people on foot and on bikes. Those same documents tie the corridor upgrade to the city's Indy Moves priorities and show land acquisitions and project approvals on file with the City-County Council. City-County Council.
Contracting, cost and timeline
Bidding notices released this spring show contractors already circling the job. Milestone Contractors and Calumet Civil both solicited subcontractor quotes and set bid deadlines in late March and early April 2026 as the project moved toward procurement. According to the Indianapolis Department of Public Works, the Girls School Road package is priced at about $30.5 million, with utility relocation work already underway. The department says the heaviest construction is expected in 2027 to 2028, which means neighbors will likely see survey crews, utility shifts, and staging activity well before any full roadway closures hit.
Safety, flooding and neighborhood context
Residents and safety advocates have spent years asking for sidewalks, buffered bike lanes, and drainage fixes along Girls School Road, and those calls grew louder after a series of crashes and a deadly west side hit-and-run earlier this year. Local reporting captured neighbors' pleas and the renewed urgency, while the city's planning materials explicitly list Girls School Road as a corridor that should carry multimodal connections alongside stormwater upgrades. The Department of Metropolitan Development notes that stormwater investments help prevent flooding and preserve the pavement, a practical case for pouring significant capital into this stretch of the west side.
City officials say more detailed traffic and construction alerts will roll out once contracts are finalized and crews are ready to mobilize. In the meantime, affected property owners should expect outreach about right-of-way needs and utility work. The Girls School Road effort is meant to tackle long-standing safety concerns while pairing a streetscape makeover with drainage fixes, but the full extent of both the disruption and the eventual payoff will not hit until major construction ramps up in 2027 to 2028.
