On August 15, Blue Woods Creek ran backward. White River water backed into the creek and eroded a levee next to the Martin Marietta quarry west of Hazel Landing Park. At its peak, an estimated 2.8 million gallons a minute cut a deep clay channel where the creek used to be. That water collapsed the Hazel Dell Parkway bridge near the park entrance and sent more than 7 billion gallons into the quarry. Seven weeks later, both routes Waterstone used to reach the river that way are closed. The park could stay shut for a year or more. The road south won't have a bridge again until late 2027 at the earliest.
For anyone living near the 116th Street and 126th Street roundabouts on Gray Road, the closest end of Waterstone, that means a different map. For at least the next year, East Carmel's open riverfront runs along River Road, from River Heritage Park in the 11800 block up to a new trailhead at 14001. Both ends carry the name of the same early Carmel family.
Why the Hazel Dell side will stay closed so long
Carmel Clay Parks & Recreation says Hazel Landing Park will remain closed "for the foreseeable future; potentially for one or more years." The reason is how many separate agencies have to act, one after another.
Blue Woods Creek is a regulated drain, so it falls under the Hamilton County Surveyor. The Surveyor is drawing up plans to realign and rebuild the creek, and those plans need approval from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The flood also washed out parts of a fiber-optic line, a finished water main and an untreated well water line. Permanent replacements probably can't go in until the plans for the creek and the bridge are final. Sections of The 106 Trail and its trailhead parking lot fell into the new channel. Other sections were damaged by the dump trucks used to build the emergency dams that protected two wastewater force mains under the creek. The trail has to be rerouted and the parking lot moved, and those designs need the same three approvals.
That sequence also stopped the projects that would have made Hazel Landing the center of East Carmel's river access. Planning is on hold for the first phase of the White River Greenway South Extension, a roughly one-mile trail funded by a $400,000 IDNR grant. The new trail has to cross Blue Woods Creek, and nobody yet knows where the creek's new path will be. The natural-surface mountain bike and hiking trails CCPR agreed this summer to build with the Hoosier Mountain Bike Association are also on hold. So is paving the entrance drive. The canoe and kayak launch is reached by that entrance drive, so it can't be used either.
Bur Oak Bridge, the pedestrian bridge to Fishers' Heritage Park, appears to have survived. Once an independent engineer certifies it, CCPR plans to reopen it partway, from the Fishers side only, as a place to look at the river. The 106 Trail will stay closed to all traffic inside Hazel Landing. CCPR's September 22 update still lists the bridge as closed.
The bridge timeline, as of early October
The city says the bridge and Blue Woods Creek are both under Hamilton County jurisdiction. It says the permanent fix will be a new bridge in roughly the same place, and the county has hired United Consulting to work out engineering options. Here is where things stand:
- Built in 1998, the old bridge carried about 12,000 cars a day, WISH-TV reported, citing the Hamilton County Highway Department's project manager.
- Demolition started September 28. Crews are working 10-hour shifts, six days a week. The county's contract requires the old bridge to be gone by October 30.
- Replacement bids closed the same day. The county expects to name a contractor early next year and finish the bridge as early as late 2027. That replaces an August hope of hiring someone by Thanksgiving.
- The estimated cost is about $14 million, and the county says that figure will probably change.
The city's October 2 newsletter says the 106th Street and Hazel Dell Parkway roundabout is open to the north and west. The barriers at 116th Street and Hazel Dell and at 106th Street and Gray Road are gone. Hazel Dell Parkway between 96th Street and 106th Street is still closed. The city's posted detours are Keystone Parkway or Gray Road in Carmel and Allisonville Road in Fishers. No temporary bridge has been announced.
Farther north there is a separate project. Hamilton County has awarded a $39.9 million contract for a grade-separated interchange at 146th Street and Hazel Dell Parkway. Work is expected to start this fall and continue into 2029. Hazel Dell will have construction at both ends for most of the next three years.
River Road is open from one Moffitt site to the other
River Heritage Park, at 11813 River Road, was completely underwater in August. Its trails, boardwalks, river overlooks, playground equipment and restroom building all came through. The cleanup is finished and the park is open.
Right next door, at 11805 River Road, is the Moffitt House. It was built in 1827 and is the oldest brick structure in Carmel and the second oldest in Hamilton County. Its cellar and some newer additions took on water. No water appears to have reached the first floor of the original building, and no significant damage has been found. The Carmel Clay History Museum credits Silas Moffitt with building the house.
About 2,000 house numbers north is the newest piece of East Carmel's trail system, the Hannah Wilkinson Moffitt Trailhead at 14001 River Road. A 1928 family genealogy lists Hannah as Silas's wife. The couple married in North Carolina in 1820 and arrived in Hamilton County in October 1823. The house at the south end of this stretch and the trailhead at the north end are named for a husband and wife.
The trailhead sits on the north extension of the White River Greenway. The extension adds more than 1.3 miles of trail and runs to 146th Street. Most of the route crosses easements provided by Conner Prairie. Funding came from a $4 million READI grant through the Indiana Economic Development Corporation and $1 million from CCPR. The main feature is the overlook. Its metal roof beams are shaped to suggest moving water, and it faces across the river to Conner Prairie's naturalized land.
The flood reached this stretch too. A section just north of the trailhead was underwater, but it has been cleaned up, and the city says every other section of the White River Greenway is open. CCPR says a formal ribbon-cutting and dedication will happen "later this year." No date had been posted as of early October.
What's on the River Road calendar this month
The view from the overlook has extra activity this month. Conner Prairie's Headless Horseman Festival runs Thursdays through Sundays, October 1 through 25, from 5 to 10 p.m. at 13400 Allisonville Road, with a hayride, carnival games and performances.
Back at the south end, CCPR's fall guide lists a free Pre/Postnatal Nature Walk at River Heritage Park on October 22, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Getting on the water is less certain. The city's September 4 FAQ said it was too early to give a date for reopening recreation on the White River. Hamilton County and other agencies will decide when it's safe. No later notice clearing paddling turned up, so for now River Road is for walking and riding along the river, not paddling on it.
Two options closer to Hazel Dell and 116th
Some East Carmel parks away from River Road have reopened. They fill different needs.
Flowing Well Park, 5100 East 116th Street. Cool Creek flooded the park, and it has been cleaned up and reopened. The "Old Faithful" artesian well, where many visitors fill water jugs, reopened on September 11. Water samples taken September 9 and September 10 both tested free of total coliform and E. coli. CCPR tests the well monthly with the City of Carmel Water Department, more often than the quarterly testing the law requires.
Founders Park, 11675 Hazel Dell Parkway. The gravel trails near the pond closed briefly for high water and are open again. The paved trails near the pond are still closed while new floating boardwalks go in. That work started before the flood. In late August, the city expected the boardwalks to be done by late October. No completion notice had been posted as of October 4. On November 21, CCPR is holding an Adaptive Barn Dance Social, designed for people with disabilities, at the park's Wilfong Pavilion from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
All of this comes from a parks department that just won its third National Gold Medal Award for Excellence in Park and Recreation Management. The city's October 2 newsletter says that makes CCPR the first three-time winner in Indiana history. The things to watch next are the dedication date at 14001 River Road, the partial reopening of Bur Oak Bridge from the Fishers side, and the replacement bridge contractor the county expects to name early in 2027.
When a road closes and a park's access moves this much, buyers in East Carmel ask about it and appraisers take it into account. If you own in Waterstone and want to know where your home's value stands while Hazel Dell is rebuilt, The Wilson Team can give you a number based on local data. Get your instant home valuation.
