
Community Health Network Leaders, Mayor Greg Ballard, and Neighborhood Leaders
The Emerson Avenue Corridor Gateway Project, eight years in the making, was officially opened for business during a ribbon cutting ceremony on Wednesday, May 20. The $2.1 million investment brought together the City of Indianapolis, the State of Indiana, Community Health Network, and several neighborhood committees: all working towards a common goal to significantly improve Emerson Avenue between 16th Street and 21st Street.
The project began as a pavement rehabilitation project and blossomed into a streetscape enhancement and beautification project that created a gateway into the community. Rundell Ernstberger Associates, a landscape architectural firm, provided design services for the corridor and United Consulting provided construction inspection services.
The facelift for this section of Emerson Avenue included improved medians with new plantings and irrigation, upgraded signals at 16th and 21st Streets, and a new signal at 19th Street. Decorative inlay crosswalks were incorporated into all intersections, pavement rehabilitation from 16th Street to 21st Street, and a new six-foot sidewalk along the west side of Emerson Avenue were also included in the gateway project.
Statistically speaking, the Emerson Avenue Corridor Gateway Project included:
- 41 New Concrete Drive Approaches
- Four Lighted Limestone Neighborhood Gateway Markers
- 20,000 Square Feet of Mulched Landscaping Beds
- 33 trees, 576 shrubs, and 5,456 perennial plants and flowers
- 1,200 Square Yards of Sod
- 8,000 Square Feet of Decorative Brick Pavers

Lighted Limestone Neighborhood Gateway Markers