News & Events
Central Canal
The Indianapolis Central Canal bank stabilization project is designed to protect the 170-year-old infrastructure that is responsible for delivering water to supply 60 percent of the Indianapolis Water service territory. The seven-mile canal carries up to 120 million gallons of water per day to the city's largest treatment facility, serving all of downtown Indianapolis and surrounding areas.
While it presents itself in a natural setting, its primary purpose is the conveyance of water to the city's largest treatment plant - it is man-made, not natural, and its function is critical for fire protection and the health and welfare of 600,000 central Indiana residents.
Veolia Water, the day-to-day manager of Indianapolis Water, has identified through daily inspections of the utility's infrastructure, some instability in the banks of the canal. This stabilization project was first proposed in 2006 as a capital project and, since then, bank erosion has continued to escalate, in great part due to muskrat burrows and activity along the banks. This erosion threatens the integrity of the canal walls and decreases the carrying capacity of the canal, which is critical during peak water use season.
Current update
On Wednesday, November 18, 2009, representatives of Veolia Water, the Department of Waterworks and JFNew presented updated design drawings, wildlife preservation and landscaping plans. That presentation is available below.
November Canal Presentation1.70 MB
Older Information and Presentations
CanalStabilizationPresentation.pdf 726.83 KB
These initial plans were presented to the public during a meeting at the Broad Ripple Park Family Center on Monday, August 24, 2009. Renderings of the initial proposal (before & after photos) are here for your review.
 Click here to view rendering 1. |
 Click here to view rendering 2. |
 Click here to view rendering 3. |
During the follow-up meeting on Monday, September 14, Indianapolis Water and Veolia presented updates to the proposed project, including the scope and timeline.
CanalStabilizationUpdate091409.pdf 1.59 MB
Veolia is continuing to incorporate comments and suggestions presented at the meeting into the stabilization plan. If you'd like to be included on future meeting notices or would like to provide a comment, please e-mail our team.
