Indianapolis eyeing June for Nickel Plate completion
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
/2025/03/13/1741896673905.gif?w=3840)
Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios
Indianapolis is just months away from adding 10 more miles to the city's ever-growing network of multiuse trails.
The big picture: The Nickel Plate Trail, a 10-foot-wide asphalt path running northeast from 42nd Street near Fall Creek Parkway through Castleton to the Hamilton County line at 96th Street near Hague Road, is the latest rail-to-trail conversion.
- It will continue into Fishers and Noblesville and, via the Midland Trace Trail at the north end, connect to the Monon Trail, creating a 40-plus-mile loop when all the work is complete.
Between the lines: The Monon Trail, the first of the area's rail trails, has spurred millions of dollars in development alongside it in the form of housing, retail and community.
- Already, the Nickel Plate has had a similar effect in Hamilton County, where it is open now, and Marion County leaders are hoping their section will spur similar development.
Flashback: Indianapolis broke ground on the $15 million project in late 2023, thanks in part to a $5 million matching grant from the state.
- It has also received federal grants to cover the cost of pedestrian bridges at Keystone Avenue and 82nd Street.
The latest: Work is ongoing on the trail as well as on the pedestrian bridge over 96th Street that will connect the two sections of trail.
- A spokesperson for the city's Department of Public Works told Axios that construction should be finished in late June.
Once it's done, the Nickel Plate will also connect to both the Monon and Fall Creek trails at the State Fairgrounds.
- That trail junction will also provide pedestrians access to the cultural trail and the city's larger system of dozens of miles of trails.