Board of Public Works approves $12.8 million Madison Avenue road diet; awards mowing and infrastructure amendments

On April 9 the Indianapolis Board of Public Works approved a $12,769,000 construction contract with Calumet Civil Contractors Inc. to redesign Madison Avenue between Pleasant Run Parkway and Ray Street, including a road diet and an interurban trail, and approved several other bid awards and contract amendments for mowing, intersection design and stormwater work.

The Madison Avenue contract (ST-32-100/128) is a construction award for a project that the engineering division described as a road diet of Madison Avenue and the addition of an interurban trail from Pleasant Run Parkway to Ray Street at Ely Campus. The board-recorded “not to exceed” amount is $12,769,000; the engineering division’s estimate for construction had been $18,164,114.49, making the low bid roughly 29.7% under the estimate. Substantial completion is scheduled for Nov. 1, 2026, with final completion on June 2, 2027.

Why it matters: The board and staff said the project is intended to advance traffic-calming and multimodal connections on Madison Avenue. The size of the award and the large gap between the engineer’s estimate and the low bid drew brief board discussion about market conditions and contractor availability.

Jason Wood, identified during discussion as the city’s construction administrator, said competitive bids were partly a market effect: “people are hungry for jobs and so if they have availability on their calendar, they’re putting in really competitive bids to win that work.”

Calumet Civil Contractors’ bid included a post-bid subcontractor and supplier participation plan. The Office of Minority and Women Business Development (OMWBD) reviewed the submittal and found the contractor had made a good-faith effort to meet the city’s owner goals (15% MBE, 8% WBE, 3% BBE, 1% DOBE); the post-bid submittal showed measured participation levels and the OMWBD determination…