City officials on Tuesday gave notice to bidders for this year’s road improvement projects using state matching funds through a program meant to improve and maintain local roads.
Columbus Board of Public Works and Safety members gave notice to bidders for projects using $1 million in Community Crossing Matching Grant (CCMG) funds.
INDOT announced recipients of the grant in December, with the city receiving the maximum amount.
The CCMG program is intended to advance community infrastructure projects, strengthen local transportation networks and improve Indiana’s roads and bridges.
To qualify, municipalities are required to provide matching local funds, depending on the size of a community. For those with populations greater than 50,000 people such as Columbus, local governments are required to match whatever amount of funding received, meaning the project will cost up to $2 million.
City Engineer Andrew Beckort said the project using the funds will involve cold-in-place recycling on County Road 450S from I-65 all the way to County Road 50W in Walesboro. It will also see 4-inch mill and overlay work to Marr Road behind Target, from Jolinda Drive to 25th Street.
Cold-in-place recycling is where existing asphalt pavement is reused on site without heating it to create a new road base or surface layer.
There were big-time changes to the CCMG program last legislative session, shrinking the annual amount of funding given out and reducing the annual cap of funds distributed to a local unit of government each year.
House Enrolled Act (HEA) 1461 also changed how the funds are distributed via matching grants, as well as a director distribution component.
Rather than an average of $260 million in matching grant funds, just $100 million is now awarded. The legislation also reduced the annual cap of CCMG funding from $1.5 million to $1 million.
HEA 1461 allocated $20 million toward financing a railroad crossing upgrade project from 2026 to 2030. In addition, starting in 2027 and each following year, $50 million will be transferred to Indianapolis for use on secondary streets if the state capital matches the funds.
Money that is leftover will be allocated to a new, separate, direct distribution fund, that in turn is directed to counties and cities with populations over 5,000 depending on lane mileage starting in fiscal year 2028.
But that funding is only available to government units that have adopted a wheel and excise surtax.
The Bartholomew County Council has been hesitant to do so, and has been gathering more information from consultants to get more of a precise idea of how funding would be different, with and without a wheel tax.
They have until September 2026 to make a decision if the county wants access to the direct distribution component during the first time around in fiscal year 2028.
The city is able to impose a wheel tax as well if it wishes access to the direct component. Council members said previously they plan to coordinate with the city in that respect.
Bartholomew County received no dollars through the CCMG program in December, something the commissioners in particular were miffed about.
The new legislation also means there will be a single call for projects each July beginning in fiscal year 2027, rather than two. Currently, there are two calls for projects in October and July, although the city won’t be applying again because it already received the full amount.
