The Indianapolis Board of Public Works today voted to award engineering company Arcadis US, Inc. a $3.6 million contract to design the proposed White River-Rocky Ripple Flood Damage Risk Reduction Project.

Project elements include final planning, hydraulic modeling of river flood evaluations, completion of design details and specifications for the selected design alternative for planned flood works, environmental permitting, easement acquisition, and construction coordination services.

This locally funded levee project (LD-10-006) will impact many special flood hazard properties in the Rocky Ripple neighborhood of Indianapolis, designed to remove these properties from the floodplain. A map of properties included in the flood control improvement district is here.

In February 2017, Mayor Joe Hogsett and the Department of Public Works announced a commitment to explore local flood damage reduction projects for the Town of Rocky Ripple. Since that time, DPW has worked with the Town of Rocky Ripple and Butler University to study how best to partner for flood protection.

In July 2018, a study prepared by engineering firm AECOM outlined 3 alternatives for constructing a local project. In November 2018, the Board of the Town of Rocky Ripple resolved both to accept Alternative 3 from this study as the preferred alternative for a flood control project. The White River-Rocky Ripple Flood Damage Risk Reduction Project uses the description of Alternative 3 from the AECOM study--preferred by the Board of the Town of Rocky Ripple--as the description and scope of future design.

In March 2020, AECOM was selected to represent the City of Indianapolis as technical representative throughout the completion of the White River-Rocky Ripple Flood Damage Risk Reduction project.

The Board of Public Works today additionally approved a declaratory resolution identifying a list of potential stormwater infrastructure projects for consideration if and when funding becomes available via a forthcoming $50 million bond. Additional approvals in this effort are expected in the coming months from the Indianapolis City-County Council and the Indianapolis Bond Bank to secure this bond funding for a selection of projects from this project list.

For more information on today's actions by the Board of Public Works, visit indy.gov/DPW.