The Indianapolis Airport Authority (IAA) and the Town of Plainfield constructed an extension of Airtech Parkway for the purpose of improving roadway connectivity between Plainfield and Indianapolis International Airport. The Extension extends the existing road approximately 2,750 linear feet, including a bridge over the East Fork of White Lick Creek, to the IAA’s West Perimeter Road. The IAA and the Town of Plainfield partnered on this project from a planning, design and financial perspective, as co-applicants on a winning grant application for $1.5B in funding from the US Economic Development Administration (EDA). 

The Metric scope of services was to provide support services for the development of environmental permits including: a permitting site evaluation, Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) Section 401 Water Quality Certification (WQC), US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Section 404 Regional General Permit, Indiana Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) Construction in a Floodway (CIF) Permit, Floodway Habitat Mitigation Plan, and IDEM Construction Stormwater General Permit (CSGP). 

This project presented several challenges including being located within two jurisdictions: the Town of Plainfield, Hendricks County, and the City of Indianapolis, Marion County. Due to the variety of agencies and government entities involved, there was the necessity for regular communication to ensure requirements were met and the project remained on track to be completed in an expedited manner. 

This project provided unique challenges associated with a constrained timeline to complete design and environmental permitting. It involved the construction of a new bridge crossing which can be challenging to permit without multiple iterations of design changes to accommodate comments received during the various environmental permitting reviews through local, state, and federal agencies. Changes in local floodplain requirements in the middle of the project also provided a unique challenge. Metric was able to assist our client WSP and the IAA with guiding and navigating through this process so that expedited reviews could be completed and permits obtained in a timely fashion.

Metric provides a wide range of environmental services for permitting which allow us to assist our clients with stormwater, floodway, and waterway impacts all with the single consultant. The consulting services performed by Metric were completed on time, without any safety incidents, and within budget. Metric consulted with the client at the start of the project to identify objectives and successfully met all these planned objectives as well as requirements at the IAA Airtech Parkway Extension.