MOORESVILLE — An $8.1 million makeover of eight blocks of Main Street in downtown Mooresville gets underway this week after years of planning and a one-year delay.
Signs were put out on Tuesday with actual work to begin Wednesday.
The project, called Main in Motion, calls for removal and replacement of driving and parking areas, sidewalks, curbs, manholes, drains, trees and lighting.
The project is to be “substantially” finished by Dec. 4, according to the public bid document governing the work.
The first work (labeled stage 1a on the accompanying graphic) will be at the intersection of Main and Monroe streets. It will involve new water pipes crossing that intersection from the west to connect with those east of Monroe Street, Banning Engineering Vice President Mark Butler said last Friday.
The stage 1a part of the project will last about four weeks, Butler said, adding, “But this is weather dependent and barring any unforeseen challenges.”
Low bid
Rieth-Riley Construction Co. was awarded the contract for the work — based on its low bid — by the five-member Mooresville Redevelopment Commission on Sept. 8, 2025. Four other bids ranged from about $8.3 million to $8.8 million.
The project, for which work was originally to start a year ago, was rescheduled after it was learned that Indiana-American Water Co. was planning to install new water mains on Main Street in the same blocks involved in the Main Street project.
The water company will pay just more than $1 million, of the $8.1 total price tag, for the water main work. The remaining $7.1 million will come from “cash on hand” from Tax Increment Financing (TIF) funds that have accumulated over several years, said the RDC’s contracted manager, Chelsey Manns, who has shepherded the plan.
No bonds or additional taxes will be required, Manns said last Thursday.
‘Shop local’ to ease headaches
“It’s really exciting when you work on something so long to see it begin to come to fruition,” Manns said of work beginning. “But by the same token, I understand how difficult construction is. Nobody likes construction itself, and I know this is going to be an imposition for residents along main as well as businesses.”
Manns said she hopes the end product “will be something the town can be really proud of.” As the work progresses, she said, the town will “try to do what we can to support small businesses in the downtown corridor during the construction.
“As much as possible, we will say ‘Shop local,’ so please go out of your way to do that.”
Tree and light work
During March, 31 trees along Main Street within a 75-foot right-of-way will be cut down. That work has to be done by April 1 by regulation to protect endangered Indiana bats that later might be nesting in the trees. Later in the project, 51 new trees will be planted in tree rows, according to the project bid.
Also at some point, existing streetlights, owned by utility AES, will be removed. New lights, bid at the total cost of $975,000, will be installed but not immediately, Manns said.
At a public meeting in November, Butler told about 35 people: “Main Street will be darker than usual during that time.”
