Eight south central Indiana cities, towns or counties are among 52 recipients sharing $120.8 million in federal transportation funds.
These monies will mostly be used for road and bridge improvements, although some funds can be utilized for infrastructure improvements such as sidewalk projects, Indiana Department of Transportation spokesman Scott Manning said.
Grant recipients will be allowed to use these funds to design and develop projects, as well as purchase land, with INDOT’s involvement, Manning said.
The town of Edinburgh will receive $562,591 to build bicycle and pedestrian paths along State Road 252, while Franklin will receive $718,916 for similar work throughout their community.
But nearly $87 million of the total money being received by the state will be used to rehab or replace 54 local bridges currently rated in poor condition.
In rural Johnson County, that includes $1.026 million to rehabilitate the bridge along County Road 700E over Fishers Creek, while $647,000 will go toward upgrading the crossing over North Prong Stotts Creek along County Road 575W.
The largest of the eight regional awards is $2.99 million, which will allow the city of Seymour to reconstruct O’Brien Street, from Village Circle Avenue to U.S. 50. Seymour will also receive a separate grant of $1.26 million to upgrade another section of O’Brien, from U.S. 50 to Fourth St.
The final two projects for the region were awarded to rural Jackson County. Officials said $569,600 will be invested in replacing a small bridge along County Road 800W over the Hinderlider Ditch, while $776,800 will be spent for a similar project along Cornett Road over South Fork Creek.
But it’s going to be quite some time before work on any of these projects get underway. These federal funds will not be made available until after July 2025, according to INDOT.
The reason why Columbus and surrounding areas has been excluded is because these types of grants are only awarded to areas without a metropolitan planning organization, Manning said.
All of Bartholomew County is within the the jurisdiction of the Columbus Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO), which manages federal transportation funds within the county, he said.
Instead of receiving specific amounts for specific projects, CAMPO receives a set amount of federal funds annually, CAMPO Director Laura Thayer said. That money can be spent on projects chosen locally- just as long as they meet specific federal criteria, Thayer said.
For fiscal year 2020, CAMPO will receive $1,850,896 — which is roughly 2% more than what the organization got in fiscal year 2019, Thayer said.
In addition to these federal funds, a significant amount of money for road and street improvements is provided to Bartholomew County through INDOT’s Community Crossings matching grant program. For 2019, the amounts were:
Bartholomew County government — $591,796
City of Columbus — $1 million
Town of Elizabethtown — $118,730
Town of Hope — $189,401
Under state guidelines, smaller towns such as Hope and Elizabethtown only have to match 25% of their grant amount. In contrast, larger units government such as Bartholomew County and the city of Columbus are required to match 50%.
