By Sam Elliott

While construction is still years away from beginning, progress has been recently made on the Ind. 37 improvement project as the City of Fishers has selected a collection of Indianapolis-based engineering and environmental study firms that will begin work soon.

“The (Ind.) 37 project is really in its infancy stages, but there has been a lot of activity lately,” Fishers Director of Engineering Jeff Hill said. “The vendors we’ve selected are the ones that are going to help us with the outreach, the design, the environmental study, communications, purchasing right of way — the stuff we have to do upfront before we can build anything.”

Once built, the improvements will replace signaled intersections along Ind. 37 — from 126th Street to 146th Street — with roundabout interchanges that will split Ind. 37 traffic from cross street traffic, similar to Keystone Parkway in Carmel.

“We’d love to bring the improvements to the citizens of Fishers and Hamilton County — it just takes a little bit of time before we can get there, though,” Hill said.

For now, surveyors will collect topographical data for preliminary engineering while environmental study firm Lochmueller Group will perform an environmental impact study that will examine the project’s effect on the area and what permits may be required.

“Realistically, since we have a four-lane divided facility there today with big intersections and roads crisscrossing the corridor — and we’re kind of more or less putting things back in the location they are today versus plowing through a farm field where nothing is — we really don’t expect to find a whole lot,” Hill said of the environmental study. “But we’re required to do our due diligence and go through the formal process so that we can satisfy federal and state laws so we can spend the dollars on the project.”

This stage of the project will take approximately one year, during which commuters can expect to see surveyors and environmental workers on site along Ind. 37 in vehicles and on foot gathering their data. Concurrently, the city and engineers will begin to develop detailed design plans for the project’s new roads and bridges and be able to determine where additional right of way land may need to be purchased.

RQAW Consulting Engineers & Architects has been hired as the project manager, helping lead the day-to-day efforts of the project along with City of Fishers staff. The firm also has been charged with meeting area business owners and those affected by the project to spread the word for what Ind. 37 is going to become.

The city’s hired team for the project thus far also includes American Structurepoint, leading the design efforts; DLZ, leading surveying and utility efforts; and ANF Engineering, helping with the project’s traffic management aspects.

For more, including updates and details of the project as well as answers to frequently asked questions, visit Fishers.in.us/SR37improvements.