About half of Nashville’s roads and almost 21 miles of county roads will get some overdue attention sometime within the next year.

The town and the county were awarded all the money they asked for through the state’s Community Crossings road grant program: $1 million for Brown County and $172,000 for Nashville.

The most any community was given was $1 million, but communities only could ask for as much as they could match with local funds.

The town is going to spend most of its $344,050 on “collector” roads that connect to state highways.

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Hawthorne Drive — the feeder to Brown County IGA, McDonald’s, Bear Hardware, the YMCA and two new apartment complexes — is top of the list.

Town Utility Coordinator Sean Cassiday said the plan is to widen the mouth of the road at State Road 46 East to allow for an eastbound turn lane from Hawthorne onto the highway. This should reduce the length of backups at the light, where vehicles have only one exit lane to turn left or right onto 46.

The town also wants to extend sidewalks from the newly constructed Hawthorne Hills senior apartments to McDonald’s, Cassiday said.

Willow Street and Chestnut Street – the other two roads in the Hawthorne Drive neighborhood — are second and third on the priority list.

Cassiday said the plan for both of them is to mill the asphalt and repave the road.

Water leaks that have been bubbling up under Chestnut will be fixed for good before repaving, he said.

Twelve of the town’s 31 highest-priority road sections needed a full milling and repaving, according to Cassiday’s road asset inventory — an overall assessment of the condition of every road under the town’s responsibility. That report was required to be done as part of the grant process.

Ten of them will be getting a full seal coat to extend the life of the pavement, and nine others will be getting a crack-seal treatment to prevent further damage.

Cassiday said the timing of the work isn’t certain yet. Ninety-nine southern Indiana communities received road work grants through the Community Crossings program and they’ll likely be seeking contractors to do the work at about the same time.

He anticipates setting a deadline of July 1, 2017 to have all the town’s work done.

That’ll be about the time the state opens up another round of Community Crossings grants, and the town will apply for more money then, too, Cassiday said.

Getting all of the town’s roads up to excellent condition was estimated to cost $969,000 and take more than five years, depending on available funds.

Having more than $300,000 to work with is exciting, Cassiday said. For the past two years, the town’s road budget has been basically zero except for emergency fixes, he said.

County’s plan

Brown County’s $1 million grant award will help repave parts of four county roads.The larger project is redoing 13.28 miles of Salt Creek Road and Sweetwater Trail, from State Road 46 East to the northern county line. It’s estimated to cost $1.375 million.

The other project is resurfacing 7.5 miles of T.C. Steele and Crooked Creek roads from State Road 46 East to Crooked Creek Lake.

Brown County Highway Superintendent Mike Magner said those routes were chosen because they connect high-traffic areas for locals and tourists and serve as alternate routes for state roads.

All that work was estimated to cost $2.65 million, leaving the county needing to make up about $65,150 after its $1 million grant and the $1 million in match money it provided.

Magner said the slight overage was intentional, to ensure the county received the full $1 million in grant money. While the county is restricted on how it can fund the grant match, there is nothing that prevents it from using regular paving funds for the portion that goes over the grant.

Outside of the grant program, the county already plans to spend about $1 million paving around 10 miles of road this fall, Magner said.

The roads on the regular paving list include sections of Spearsville Road, Railroad Road, Chickadee Drive, Cardinal Drive, West Robertson Road, Horseshoe Road, Creamer Road, Mt. Zion Road, Hassettown Road and Helmsburg School Road.

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Full mill and asphalt overlay:

• All of Hawthorne Drive, 0.173 mile
• Willow Street from 103 Willow to 55 Willow, 0.15 mile
• West Chestnut Street from 75 Chestnut to 51 Chestnut, 0.13 mile
• All of East Washington Street, 0.117 mile
• Salt Creek Road from State Road 46 East to Old State Road 46, 0.069 mile
• Old School Way from Main to Washington streets, 0.163 mile
• West Gould Street from the library to Locust Lane, 0.057 mile
• West and East Gould from Locust Lane to Jefferson Street, 0.125 mile
• All of Ridgeway Drive, 0.221 mile
• All of Treetop Lane, 0.19 mile
• West Lake Drive from Parkview Road to the dam, 0.85 mile
• West Lake Drive from the dam entrance to Hillside, 0.209 mile
• South Drive from Park Lane to Parkview Road, 0.042 mile

Full seal coat:

• West Main Street from Jackson Branch Road to Jefferson Street, 0.169 mile
• Snyder Road from Old State Road 46 to Coffey Hill Road, 0.077 mile
• West Mound Street from Jefferson to Johnson streets, 0.064 mile
• Buck Stogsdill Way from Mound to Main streets, 0.132 mile
• West Gould from Jefferson Street to the west dead end, 0.155 mile
• Park Lane from West Lake Drive to South Drive, 0.235 mile
• Tuckaway Ridge Drive from Tuckaway Ridge Road to the end of Ridge Lane, 0.189 mile
• Tuckaway Ridge Lane from Tuckaway Ridge Road to the end, 0.125 mile
• Tuckway Ridge Road from Old State Road 46 to Tuckaway, 0.109 mile

Crack seal:

• Main Street from Jefferson Street to Greasy Creek Road, 0.436 mile
• Mound Street from Locust Lane to Jefferson Street, 0.128 mile
• Greasy Creek Road from Old State Road 46 to 1040 Greasy Creek, 0.411 mile
• Coffey Hill Road from Snyder Road to Old State Road 46, 0.297 mile
• Locust Lane from Mound Street to 221 Locust Lane, 0.031 mile
• Locust Lane from 221 Locust to the end, 0.172 mile
• Wells Drive (North Drive) from 460 Wells to 459 Artist Drive, 0.053 mile
• Wells Drive from Artist Drive to the end, 0.174 mile
• West Drive from Artist Drive to the end, 0.035 mile

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County roads to be paved with state grant money are:

• Salt Creek Road and Sweetwater Trail from State Road 46 East to the northern county line, 13.28 miles.
• T.C. Steele and Crooked Creek roads from State Road 46 East to Crooked Creek Lake, 7.5 miles.

The Brown County Highway Department also expects to pave sections of 10 roads yet this year with money already in its budget:

• Spearsville Road from State Road 135 to Bittersweet Road (2.75 miles)
• Railroad Road from State Road 135 to Oak Ridge Road (2 miles)
• Chickadee Drive (0.55 mile)
• Cardinal Drive (0.15 mile)
• West Robertson Road (1 mile)
• Horseshoe Road from Hornettown Road to the Johnson County line (0.5 mile)
• Creamer Road from Greasy Creek to North Drive (1.2 miles)
• Mt. Zion Road (0.84 mile)
• Hassettown Road from Short Chute Road to the Morgan County line (0.28 mile)
• Helmsburg School Road (0.64 miles)

When paving will be done hasn’t been determined yet. Bids are being collected now.

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