City, contractors give detailed update on excavations for Henry Street Bridge and White River Innovation District

At a public meeting at the Edison School of Arts in Indianapolis, city staff, contract archaeologists and university bioarchaeologists gave a progress update on archaeological excavation connected to the Henry Street Bridge and White River Innovation District project and described what will happen to human remains and material culture recovered from former burial grounds.

The update matters because the project footprint crosses parts of historic cemetery ground historically associated with Greenlawn and Union Cemetery; speakers emphasized that excavation, documentation and respectful reburial are central to how the city is proceeding.

City of Indianapolis Director of Public Works Todd Wilson opened the meeting by framing the project as “about more than a bridge,” and said the work is meant to “reckon with some difficult truths about our city's past.” Wilson and other presenters described a phased construction program for the White River Innovation District and tied the timing of certain work — notably the eastern Henry Street build — to the pace of archaeological excavation.

Ryan Peterson, the project’s lead archaeologist, described the field methods Stantec is using: mechanical removal of overburden under archaeologist supervision, identification of grave shafts by soil staining, sub-centimeter GPS mapping, drone flights and hand excavation with screening of soil through…