In past years, Bartholomew County Highway officials had no reason to seek bids for repaving rural roads during the first week of a new year.
But that’s exactly what county highway engineer Danny Hollander recently asked the county commissioners to approve about 10 sections of rural roads. The commissioners unanimously approved the request.
With the current volatility in oil and asphalt prices, Hollander told the commissioners he was uneasy in making the request just two weeks after the official beginning of winter.
“I hate to bid overlay projects six months in advance because the contractor doesn’t know what his material prices are going to be,” Hollander said.
But the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT), which provided $590,000 in matching funds for those 10 projects, didn’t announce the award from the second round of the 2019 Community Crossings grant program until early October. Since it takes several weeks after the announcement before the money is received by the county — and asphalt plants usually close around Dec. 1 — Hollander said the highway department had no choice but to wait until this year to pave those 10 roads. Earlier in 2019, Bartholomew County received $467,400 in the first round of program grants.
Normally, the highway department would have waited to bid projects from the previous year in late spring, along with the current year’s overlay program. However, INDOT has imposed new requirements and timelines for grant recipients, Hollander said. One of them prompted the highway department to ask contractors to submit their bids on these 10 projects no later than Jan. 22, he said.
Another new regulation requires the county to hire only one contractor to work on projects funded through this matching grant program, Hollander said. In recent years, overlay work was done by Milestone Contractors of Columbus and Dave O’Mara Contractors Inc. of North Vernon.
INDOT is asking that all overlay work funded through Community Crossings be placed in a separate contract apart from identical projects financed through regular channels.
Although a timetable for the start of these projects can’t be established until the job is awarded, contractors usually strive to get projects from the previous year completed before they submit conventional overlay bids in mid- to late spring, Hollander said earlier.
Community Crossings was created by the Indiana General Assembly in 2016 with funding awarded by the state’s local road and bridge matching grant fund.
INDOT now accepts matching grant applications in both January and July, with a $1 million cap annually per community. According to officials estimates, an estimated $100 million will be available for communities opting to apply this month for funds that will become available this summer.
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Bids will be open Jan. 22 for 10 sections of rural Bartholomew County roads that will receive new layers of asphalt this spring:
- County Road 930S from State Road 58 to 500W, estimated cost: $193,522.
- County Road 250W from Lowell Road to 100N, estimated cost: $183,379.
- County Road 400S from State Road 7 to 750W, estimated cost: $113,990.
- County Road 100W from 650S to 750N, estimated cost: $116,641.
- County Road 60E from 950S to 1100S, estimated cost: $112,502.
- County Road 800W from Becks Grove Road to 700S, estimated cost: $94,557.
- County Road 525S from Becks Grove Road to 875W, estimated cost: $94,324.
- County Road 550N from 475E to 600E, estimated cost: $94,413.
- County Road 950S from 150W to Interstate 65 overpass, estimated cost: $92,281.
- County Road 525East from 100S to State Road 46, estimated cost: $87,990.
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Carl Lienhoop will serve as chairman of the Bartholomew County commissioners in 2020. The grain and livestock farmer, as well as cousin to Columbus Mayor Jim Lienhoop, has been the District 2 commissioner since 2002.
There was only one change the commissioners announced in their appointments to various boards, commissions and committees. Susan Whipker has been chosen to succeed David Mann on the Alcoholic Beverage Commission Board.
The commissioners are still seeking a resident willing to either fill one vacancy on the Board of Zoning Appeals and another vacancy on the Bartholomew County Plan Commission.
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