Indianapolis City-County Council President Bob Bosley told the Marion County Alliance of Neighborhood Associations that the city is increasing road investments to address years of deferred maintenance but warned residents that repairs take time and can cause project delays.

"There are improvements. Those are objective improvements," Bosley said, adding that road funding this year exceeds a "quarter of a billion" dollars and that additional state matching funds tied to House Bill 1461 would add to county road resources.

Bosley said the city has increased road investment in recent years by reusing bond capacity and redirecting payments that previously went to debt service into road work. But he acknowledged that years of deferred maintenance mean a multi-year program is necessary.

He described coordination and unforeseen-condition challenges that can delay projects, using the Thirtieth Street Bridge as an example. Workers discovered that the stone facing was attached to a concrete pier rather than an earthen backing as expected; the contractor had to chip and replace stone and reconfigure piers, extending the project timeline.

"You get those kinds of circumstances when you're dealing with something that isn't new," Bosley said. "That is one of the challenges that we will always face when it comes to public works projects."

Residents at the meeting raised concerns about frequent detours, patch work versus reconstruction, and whether road dollars were concentrated in some areas at the expense of other services. Bosley said the administration has tried to increase road funding without hurting other departments by combining city funds with one-time federal and philanthropic resources where available.

He also said Marion County is a "donor county" in the state's distribution formulas and that recent state action recognizes the county's need for special allocation to reduce the funding gap.

Bosley urged neighborhoods to press for coordination with the Department of Public Works (DPW) and said he would ask DPW representatives to attend a future neighborhood meeting to explain scheduling and project sequencing.

"This administration has done something over the course of the last 6 or 7 years to put more road funding in," Bosley said. "We are hitting deferred maintenance as we go forward."