More Brown County roads are set to be paved in 2023 after $1 million was received to accelerate road and bridge improvements.
Local funding from the Community Crossings Matching Grant Program (CCMG) is for road and bridge preservation, road reconstruction, intersection improvements, guardrail replacements and signage, and can cover material costs for chip sealing and crack filling operations.
The news was announced on Dec. 6. The county was one of 229 cities, towns and counties to receive a combined $119 million in state matching funds for local road projects, according to Indiana Department of Transportation.
Brown County was one of 53 counties to receive a Community Crossings grant, Brown County Highway Superintendent Mike Magner said at the Brown County Commissioners meeting on Dec. 7.
The full lengths of North Shore Drive, South Shore Drive and Beanblossom Road (from Fox’s Corner to Peoga/Spearsville Roads) will be paved next summer using the funds, totaling a little over 14 miles.
The CCMG was established by the Indiana General Assembly in 2016 and aims to advance community infrastructure projects, strengthen local transportation networks and improve Indiana’s roads and bridges.
Since its enactment, the program has awarded more than $1.1 billion in state matching funds for local construction projects.
Through the program, INDOT matches up to $1 million annually when localities invest in road and bridge repairs. Counties with populations fewer than 50,000 and cities and towns with populations fewer than 10,000 receive a 75%/25% match, while counties with populations greater than 50,000 and cities and towns with populations greater than 10,000 receive a 50%/50% match.
This is the fifth consecutive time the county has received $1 million in state grant funding to help pave roads here.
The CCMG offers two rounds of applications each year, with the next call for applications occurring in January of 2023.
Communities can receive grant money from both cycles, but applications cannot exceed more than $1 million total.
“If I’m going to go through all the effort of what it takes to get these accomplished, we’re getting the full million,” Magner said.
“We’re going to go for the full million every time.”
In the nine-county area, the only counties who have received more CCMG money total than Brown County are Bartholomew ($5.8 million) and Monroe ($5.2 million) counties, Magner said.
“Both huge counties, who have all kinds of money. We’ve received $5 million. I feel pretty good about that, that we’re competitive and standing up with them.”
The state requires commissioners to sign a resolution authorizing the execution of INDOT agreements, which commissioners authorized at their meeting on Dec. 7.
Magner has prepared the next request for bids for the projects. Bids will close Jan. 18, 2023.
The last round of Community Crossings grant funding was used this year to pave all of Clay Lick and Helmsburg Roads.
A number of locally funded paving projects were also completed in the county this year.
In June, the Brown County Commissioners awarded E&B Paving a contract for $3,118,771 to pave portions of the following county roads: Lanam Ridge Road (4.15 miles); Woodland Lake Road (2 miles); Hurdle Road (2 miles); Spearsville Road (2 miles); Three Story Hill Road (3.4 miles); Parkview Road (1 mile); Hornettown Road (3.5 miles); and Owl Creek Road (2.5 miles).
Parkview Road has not yet been paved due to the construction of the waterline from Nashville to the Brown County State Park.
It will be added to the list of paving projects for 2023, Brown County Highway Superintendent Mike Magner said in October.
Paving of the eight county roads was funded by local sources. The commissioners also budgeted $800,000 out of the $3 million capital improvement loan that was approved last year to help with paving costs this year.
Historically, there were three paving plans for the county ranging from 2015 to 2026, Magner said at the Brown County Commissioners meeting on Oct. 5.
The initial plan was from 2015 through 2017, the second was from 2018 through 2020 and the most recent ranges from 2021 through 2026.
Since 2015, 165 miles of the 235 planned miles of road have been paved.
If funding allows and fuel prices get “back under control,” asphalt prices will also go down, Magner said in October, the highway department will be able to overlay and improve every hard-surface road in the county within the 12-year period.
Biddle said in October to pave 165 miles in eight years is “unprecedented.”
After paving plans are completed in 2026, Magner said in October it will be time to start again, perhaps looking at the option of converting high-traveled gravel roads into paved roads.
