Lee said the critical importance of a robust transit system is made evident when observing a student population like Ivy Tech’s.
“Getting students to and from campus has always been a priority for us, but we are primarily a commuter campus – much like IUPUI,” Lee said. “We have no residence halls, so everyone has to come and go.”
Some of Ivy Tech’s students arrive straight out of high school, while others come as working adults looking to go back to school and gain additional expertise that will help them in the workforce, Lee said. Transportation represents yet another added expense for students dealing with an already-costly college education process – on average, 18 percent of a student’s living expenses go toward transportation.
“We lose a lot of students to what we call ‘life’, and a lot of times ‘life’ is simply reliable transportation,” Lee said. For us, that’s where the Red Line comes in.
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Lee said the 2019 opening of the Red Line drastically reduced commute times for many Ivy Tech students, and said she fully expects the Purple Line to offer that same convenience to students living in other areas of Indianapolis. By connecting Ivy Tech’s Lawrence Campus to its main Indianapolis campus, the Purple Line will not only facilitate shorter commute times but will also provide students with more opportunities to connect with major Indiana employers.
Rodriguez said Indianapolis has the eighth busiest cargo airport in the U.S. and the second largest FedEx hub in the world. The Indianapolis airport employs over 10,000 people (pilots, flight attendants, mechanics, hospitality workers, etc.) and represents an economic impact of over $5 billion per year.
These jobs need to be filled, Rodriguez said. Employment centers in and around the airport all would benefit from an increased level of access to workers as the airport and its number of passengers continues growing.
“We will continue to expand the airport in the foreseeable future, and what that represents to the construction industry is a huge economic impact,” Rodriguez said. “For example, FedEx is doubling in size. Right now, on the books and about to be bid, we have about 200 million in airfield work.”
Indianapolis’ all-electric bus rapid transit (BRT) system is set to become the first entirely electric bus system in the United States when it is completed, Booth said. IndyGo’s fully implemented mass transit system will introduce organized public transportation spanning throughout Marion County in the form of a Purple Line, Red Line, and Blue Line. The Red Line opened in 2019.
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IndyGo will soon begin bidding for the development of the Purple Line (expected to be complete around 2023), and further work on the Blue Line will begin after the Purple Line is finished, Booth said.
- 15.2 miles long
- 30 station locations
- 18 stations will be exclusively for Purple Line
- 90 percent dedicated lanes (exclusive bus use)
- $169 million project cost (includes professional services, bus vehicle purchases, right of way acquisition, station amenities, and other non-construction costs)
- More than 25 percent reduction in transit travel times
- 25 new or upgraded traffic signals
- 3 miles of multi-use path
- Add or repair 9.5 miles of sidewalk infrastructure
- 361 new curb ramps
- 51,700 linear feet of storm sewer
- 114,000 tons of HMA pavement
- Over 50 percent of budget going to supporting infrastructure
- Estimated construction cost: $80 – $100 million
- Estimated letting date: May – June 2021 (contingent on local and federal funding)
- Estimated construction start: Fall 2021
- Estimated calendar years of construction: 2021, 2022, 2023
- Procurement method: Design-bid-build with three bid packages
- 18 new center stations with half-mile spacing in between stations
- Added stations will be located at signalized intersections
- Stations will include ticket vending machines, level boarding, real-time arrival signs, Wi-Fi, security cameras, snow melt, ADA accessibility, and a nose barrier.
- “A couple lessons learned from the Red Line: we needed better Wi-Fi and security cameras, which we added to the stations,” Booth said. “Also, stations need snow melt controls where you can turn on the snow melt system and be able to turn it off later.”
- Mixed traffic (buses in the same lanes as all the cars)
- Dedicated lanes
- Dedicated BAT – cars can pull into the lane to turn left, but the lane prioritizes buses (3.9 miles of Purple Line is dedicated BAT)
- Center Running Dedicated (4.5 miles of Purple Line) is a dedicated lane for just the bus itself (seen along the red line)
- Bi-directional – buses share one lane in the middle; auto-vehicle locating, GPS ensures the buses are not in the same place at the same time
- 63 percent minority population
- 11 percent undergraduate/graduate students
- 30.3 percent low-income population
- 134,000 accessible jobs
Employment centers along Purple Line:
- Central business district downtown – 4 percent of all jobs in Indiana
- Indiana State Fairgrounds
- Department of Defense’s Finance and Accounting Services Center (DFAS)
- City of Lawrence
- Fort Harrison Reuse Authority (Village)
- Ivy Tech Community College
- Dedicated lanes
- Median and raised curbs
- Curb and gutters
- Sidewalks and paths
- Drainage improvements
- Roadway construction
- Patching and resurfacing
- Pavement markings
- Traffic signals
- Signage
- DBE Goal to be determined
Trade Work
- Right of way clearing/site demolition
- Erosion control
- Storm drainage (pipes, manholes, inlets, and detention ponds)
- Asphalt paving (full depth, patch, mill, and resurfacing)
- Concrete (patching, curbs, gutters, sidewalks, and curb ramps)
- Pavement markings
- Maintenance of traffic during construction (signs, barricades, pavement markings, and signals)
- Tree protection
- Protection of public service structure
- Retaining walls (concrete and reinforcing steel)
- Traffic control devices (signals, pedestrian)
- Signage
- Landscaping
- Stations to be constructed upon completion of road work
- Canopy roof
- Bus pads
- Station platforms
- Pedestrian ramps
- Lighting
- Real time arrival information
- Security
- Windscreens
- Docking Technology – “One of the additional things we learned from the red line was adding rub rails, which are longer and stronger rails that will be put along the docks that will allow the bus to come in contact with more area of the station and know they are docking the bus properly.” – Booth
Trade Work
- Earthwork
- Maintenance of traffic
- Structures
- Structural steel, cold rolled framing, rough carpentry, finish carpentry, roofing, joint sealants, doors and hardware, glass and glazing, finish coatings, piping and tube railings, specialty installation
- Plumbing
- Mechanical
- Electrical
- Communications (communications network, CCTV, emergency phone, ticket vending, passenger information sign systems, public address system)
- Package A: Contractor must be qualified by INDOT
- Package B: Contractor must be qualified by IDOA
- Contractors bidding a Combined Package A and Package B do not need to be prequalified by both INDOT and IDOA
