When street or highway departments underbid a particular infrastructure project, department heads must appear before elected officials to request money to make up the difference.
But eyes lit up Tuesday among members of the Columbus Board of Works and Public Safety when an unusually large overbid was brought to their attention. City engineer Andrew Beckort asked the city to accept $105,009 earmarked for the 2024 overlay program that wasn’t needed.
Half of the money to repave deteriorating streets and related infrastructure in Columbus this year is paid through a Community Crossing matching grant. The CCMG program, administered by the Indiana Department of Transportation, calls for the local unit of government to match 50% of their grant. Smaller communities with a population of 10,000 or less are only required to match 25% of the grant.
While a refund of money is not uncommon when a change order is submitted, cost reductions are usually substantially less.
When asked why the reduction for the overlay project was so high, Beckort said the initial application required some guessing work, Beckort said.
“Our estimate was far over what was needed,” according to the engineer.
In addition, prices paid for materials were lower than what had been submitted to the state grant administrators, Beckort said.
The city engineer described the $105,009 as the culmination of “unders and overs” made on a multi-faceted project during an entire construction season.
Beckort learned last May that Columbus would receive $1.49 million in CCMG money. At that time, the city’s coffers still had $250,571 in unspent funds left over from the second round of the 2023 matching grant program.
When the Columbus City Council allocated $1.75 million in July, they also approved additional repaving projects on Flintwood Circle, Eastridge Drive, Tipton Lakes Boulevard and Marr Road for a total of 25 repaving projects.
Bartholomew County government had a similar experience this year. They received $1.5 million through the CCMG program to finance about 30 projects covering 26 miles of rural roads. With local matching funds, that translates into a $3 million investment.
But the cost of repaving all of the overlay projects totaled only $2,698,800. That left an additional $301,200 for additional paving jobs.
While there are two rounds of the CCMG program each year, qualifying units of government can only receive a maximum of $1.5 million annually. That was raised a few years ago from a $1 million annual maximum.
