By Muncie-Delaware County Indiana Economic Development Alliance—
MUNCIE, Ind.—The Delaware Advancement Corporation, City of Muncie and Muncie Sanitary District have awarded three individual contracts to E&B Paving, 3D Construction and DC Construction Services to install a pedestrian trail, repave Riverside Avenue, and reconstruct the Riverside-Jackson Street Intersection. Each project includes extensive stormwater infrastructure improvements and will begin soon. Additionally, Indiana American Water has begun upgrades to the water infrastructure along Riverside Ave, between Brentwood Avenue and Timber Mill Way.
“After careful planning, based primarily on the public input meetings in 2019, a broad community partnership has formed to address stormwater issues, automobile travel speeds and traffic back-ups—all concerns of the public —that will further enhance the pedestrian trail being built along Riverside Avenue,” said Elizabeth Rowray, President of the Delaware Advancement Corporation.
The trail addition will connect Morrison Road to Tillotson Avenue/Ball State University, including a new sidewalk connection to the Catalina Swim Club on Clarkdale Avenue.
The aggregate construction cost for the three projects is $2.25M.
Funding for each of the projects varies. Delaware Advancement Corporation was awarded a Department of Natural Resources Next Level Trail Grant and an East Central Indiana Regional Development Authority trail grant out of its funding from the Indiana Economic Development Corporation’s Regional Cities Initiative. The Muncie Sanitary District is funding the stormwater improvements through its stormwater utility program and the American Recovery Plan. Finally, the City of Muncie is using an INDOT Community Crossings grant to cover road improvements at the Riverside and Jackson Street intersection.
FlatLand Resources and IXOYE engineering have been providing project management and design services for the projects. There is a substantial completion date of fall 2022 for the three projects.
A unique feature of this project is a road diet at the Jackson and Riverside intersection. One travel lane will be eliminated on Riverside that will help slow the travel speeds of vehicles at Jackson Street.
Given the scope of the project, residents in this area of town should plan for construction inconveniences for several months once the project begins.
“This is Muncie at its best,” said Rowray. “We are making ‘quality of place’ improvements in an area of town where owner occupied housing demand is high—an area lacking in safe pedestrian travel routes. We are closing gaps in Muncie’s incredible existing trail network. We are using limited local tax dollars to leverage state and federal financial resources. All of this is in response to public input gathered at the onset of the trail project.”
