BEECH GROVE, Ind. — The City of Beech Grove has received a $17 million grant to make parts of Emerson Avenue safer.

According to a press release, the City received the grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation. The grant is part the USDOT’s Safe Street and Roads for All (SS4A) program and is worth $17,082,400 in total.

The funding will pay for the majority of the City of Beech Grove’s Emerson Avenue High Injury Network Safety Improvement initiative. The project’s total price tag is $21.35 million.

The City has indicated that its initiative “will boost safety for drivers, pedestrians, cyclists and transit users along Emerson Avenue between Victory Drive and Main Street.”

Crews will do the following along Emerson Avenue during the project:

  • Replace four signalized intersections with modern roundabouts
  • Close three median cuts
  • Add raised medians along the roadway
  • Add pedestrian refuge islands at 17 crossings to solve right-angle conflicts
  • Install pedestrian-activated, rectangular, rapid-flashing beacons at 20 crossings
  • Fill sidewalk gaps
  • Widen sidewalks to meet ADA standards
  • Connect the existing Hornet Greenway and Franciscan Trail to downtown Main Street
  • Upgrade IndyGo bus stops for ADA compliance

“This federal grant allows us to make meaningful, long-term safety improvements that our residents have been asking for,” Beech Grove Mayor James Coffman said via release. “By redesigning Emerson Avenue, we are creating safer crossings, calmer traffic, and better access for people of all ages and abilities.”

Per the City, between 2018 and 2022, one fatal crash and 32 serious injury crashes happened along the stretch of Emerson Avenue crews will improve with funding provided by the USDOT. Officials in Beech Grove have also indicated that their city is the only one in Indiana to receive grant money from the USDOT’s SS4A program.

“In addition to safety and greater connectivity, this grant award will change the gateway to our city for the better,” Coffman said. “This is a highly visible corridor that stretches for nearly two miles, with several parcels that are ripe for redevelopment. At its completion, it will result in a transformation that truly occurs only once in a generation.” 

The City of Beech Grove’s grant application was spearheaded by Andrew Wolf with CrossRoad Engineers. The application was backed by the likes of U.S. Representative Jefferson Shreve, U.S. Senators Todd Young and Jim Banks and Indiana State Representative Julie McGuire and Mitch Gore.