Make wishtv.com your home page

Neighbors celebrate reopening of Central Avenue bridge

Neighbors celebrate reopening of Central Avenue bridge

Travis Robinson | News 8

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The Central Avenue bridge at Fall Creek Parkway opened Friday after years of construction.

The first car came rolling over the bridge at 10:49 a.m., and people couldn’t have been more excited.

From the honking, cheering and thumbs up, drivers and pedestrians alike were ecstatic to cross the bridge for the first time in more than two years.

“Awesome!” Courtney Hawk said. “It’s nice that the traffic has calmed down a little bit now that Central went two ways. We bike a ton, so when I saw the wide sidewalk last week, I was super excited.”

The construction not only maintained the historical architecture the bridge once had but also added new safety rails and made the road a two-way street. To celebrate, some neighbors had their own ribbon-cutting ceremony.

“I thought that two and a half years definitely deserved a lot more attention than this,” Lee Hartsock said. “Anyway, I’m glad it’s back.”

With the long wait, many neighbors haven’t ever had to deal with traffic through the area.

“No, never,” Hawk said. “So this is going to be great.”

The updated roadway could have some growing pains: News 8 saw some motorists fail to stop at the intersection Friday, as if the construction were still in place.

“Change is hard sometimes,” Karen McAleavey said. “But at the same time, as we have more dense populations and the changing downtown neighborhoods, any access to and from neighborhoods, I think is a benefit.”

While most people in the neighborhood sounded optimistic, others said they worry about the Department of Public Works’ estimation that 2,500 cars will travel the road every day.

“I think there’s a little bit of hesitancy on the speed of the cars coming through here,” Hawk said. “Again, I think we’ve gotten used to not having so much traffic and being able to cross the street and be on the bike on Central, but we’ll all just have to adjust, kind of like the Red Line. It’s just new traffic patterns.”

The bridge will also be getting streetlights and flowers soon.