Speedway breaks ground on $500M project

SPEEDWAY, Ind. (WISH) - Years of talk turned into action on Thursday on the city’s west side. A $500 million renovation project is under way in Speedway.

The area where it's taking place is bordered by 16th Street to the north, 10th Street to the south, Olin Avenue to the east, and Main Street to the west.

Crews will be on Main Street for the next year and a half, and that's just the beginning of the changes coming to the area around the track.

"Main Street will be the backbone of a bustling, vibrant downtown district," said Vince Noblet, head of the Speedway Redevelopment Commission. "A re-energized Main Street will attract new businesses, shops and restaurants."

The Speedway Redevelopment Commission has plans for the area near Main Street, and another area along Crawfordsville and High School Roads.

The goal is to turn the area around the track into more of a destination in itself.

While some business owners feel unsettled about how the changes will impact them, boosters of the project see nothing but positives.

"What I want to see is with this new project that people not only know the track," said City-County Council Member Marilyn Pfisterer. "But they know the town of Speedway as a welcoming destination where they can come and feel at home and spend some money."

The people in charge of the project aren't closing all of Main Street between 10th and 16th streets at once.

They'll do the work in sections.

So right now, the only part of Main that's closed is between 11th and 13th Streets.

And the entire street will be open during the month of May and for Brickyard weekend in July.