Local and state officials plan to use a $12 million federal grant to finish design work on the final phase of the State Road 37 rebuild in Noblesville
The U.S. Department of Transportation grant, announced Monday, is one of four in Indiana awarded through the department’s competitive Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development, or BUILD, program.
All of the funds are expected to go toward design work for the reconstruction of S.R. 37 between Greenfield Avenue and S.R. 32/38 into a divided highway, a project with a total estimated price of $300 million.
The project is expected to replace four signaled intersections (Greenfield, Town and Country Boulevard, Pleasant Street and S.R. 32) with overpass bridges or roundabout interchanges.
Construction on the Fishers portion of the rebuild, which involved five intersections, concluded in late May with an interchange at 141st Street.
While the federal funds will be used to finish design of the entire 1.6-mile Noblesville stretch, work on the segment’s southern end — Greenfield Avenue to Town and Country Boulevard — is expected to start in 2031.
“I’m grateful that Noblesville received the BUILD grant, which will keep the State Road 37 project moving forward and improve one of our most traveled roadways,” Noblesville Mayor Chris Jensen said in a news release. “As America’s Hometown continues to grow, the State Road 37 project will reduce congestion, improve safety, and make travel along this busy corridor easier. Projects of this magnitude take multiple partners working together to make the vision become a reality.”
Design planning began in 2025 but has been complicated by the fact that a portion of the planned rebuild runs through a tightly packed commercial district, particularly the area from Town and Country Boulevard to S.R. 32/38.
Cherry Street intersects S.R. 37 about 1/10th of a mile south of S.R. 32/38, and Cumberland Road is roughly 100 yards west of the intersection at S.R. 32/38, further complicating the project.
The funds were awarded to Noblesville, which will pay for a portion of the project, but management will generally fall under the purview of the Indiana Department of Transportation through a partnership with Noblesville and Hamilton County. The department also partnered with Fishers on earlier phases of the project.
Jensen said that Sen. Jim Banks, R-Indiana, was directly involved in advocating for the project as one of 127 across the U.S. and its territories to receive funds from a $1.73 billion pool.
“INDOT is grateful for the partnership with the city of Noblesville as the State Road 37 Improvement Project moves forward,” INDOT Commissioner Lyndsay Quist said in written remarks. “This BUILD grant is an important investment in the final design work that will help improve mobility and make travel safer for the people who live, work, and visit Noblesville.”
Conversations about alleviating congestion on S.R. 37 from Interstate 69 to S.R. 32/38 began in 2005 and gained momentum four years later, when Hamilton County leaders voted to study the corridor.
State and county officials announced in 2015 that $100 million of state funding had been set aside to reconstruct 2 miles of the corridor—from 126th to 146th streets—and Fishers and Hamilton County pledged to split an additional $24 million to make the project a reality.
While construction on the Fishers portion of the project began in 2019, the initial $124 million estimate fell short, as utility relocations, costly land acquisitions and inflation increased the price tag to $160 million, and eventually to $185 million. The city and county covered the overruns.
The federal Department of Transportation awarded about $57.8 million to four projects in Indiana.
The city of Whiting was awarded a little more than $5.16 million for a new overpass near the BP water purification plant, a $6.45 million project. Fort Wayne will get $15.66 million for a $17.4 million effort to repair and reconfiguration of two bridges spanning the St. Marys River.
Ports of Indiana will get $25 million to build a new dock, a 300-ton overhead crane, warehousing and additional infrastructure at its facility in Jeffersonville, a nearly $32 million development.