Jaycie Phelps Drive south of McKenzie Road in Greenfield is one of many Hancock County road segments that will be improved thanks to a state grant program.
Mitchell Kirk | Daily Reporter
HANCOCK COUNTY – A state grant program awarded over $3.2 million in matching funds for road improvements throughout the county.
Indiana’s Community Crossings initiative approved $1 million for Greenfield, $798,500 for Hancock County, $989,314.50 for McCordsville and $415,424.16 for Cumberland. The amounts represent a 50% match for Hancock County and Greenfield and a 75% match for McCordsville and Cumberland.
Tyler Rankins, Greenfield street commissioner, said the funds will resurface multiple roads throughout the city, including Jaycie Phelps Drive between U.S. 40 and McKenzie Road, Apple Street between McKenzie Road and New Road, and Broadway between Seventh Street and McKenzie Road.
“It’s probably been at least 15 years since they’ve been resurfaced,” Rankins said. “Being a main traveled road with higher than 30 mile an hour speed limits, you kind of prioritize those.”
Gary Pool, Hancock County highway engineer, said the county’s latest Community Crossings funds will go toward road repairs and a microsurface overlay on CR 600E generally north of U.S. 40 and on CR 200W generally south of U.S. 40.
Pool described a microsurface overlay as better than chip seal but not quite paving. It consists of about a half-inch to ¾-inch of asphalt slurry smoothed onto a road, covering asphalt that’s been weakened by sun, salt and vehicles.
“This reestablishes the friction on the top layer and it provides waterproofing to the bottom layers to make the road last longer,” Pool said.
Mark Witsman, McCordsville town engineer, said segments of 27 roads will have their surfaces milled off and replaced as a result of the latest Community Crossings award.
“It was a very big application,” he said.
One is a section of CR 700W near Meadows at Sagebrook and Stansbury. Roads in neighborhoods throughout town are also on the list, including in Highland Springs, Bay Creek, Emerald Springs, Deer Crossing, Austin Trace and Gateway Crossing.
“We’re real happy with the award and looking forward to getting these projects bid out here and having an impact on our ratings and improve the road conditions for our residents,” Witsman said.
The town chose roads based on its asset management plan that entails rating all roads every two years. Ratings range from 1 to 10, with 10 representing a brand new road. Witsman said McCordsville included roads in its latest Community Crossings application with ratings of five or six, which indicates cracks in the surface but still a structurally sound road.
McCordsville has a few roads under a rating of five, Witsman said, but added it’s ultimately more cost effective to focus on those in need of early maintenance.
“The town’s got 55 miles of streets and only so much tax dollars to spend on it, so we want to leverage what we can,” he said.
Neither Fortville nor New Palestine applied for the recent round of Community Crossings grants. Fortville received nearly $1 million and New Palestine got over $92,000 from the last round, however. Joe Renner, Fortville town manager, said the town didn’t have enough matching funds to apply for the latest round after getting fully funded last time, but that it will apply again as soon as that balance is rebuilt. Steve Pool, New Palestine street commissioner, said the town typically applies for one round a year and intends to apply for the next call for projects, which opens next month.
The Indiana Department of Transportation reported 229 Indiana cities, towns and counties received a combined $119.4 million in state matching funds for local road projects recently through Community Crossings.
Communities submitted applications for funding during a highly competitive call for projects in July and August, according to a news release from INDOT. Applications were evaluated based on need and current conditions, as well as impacts to safety and economic development. Funding for Community Crossings comes from the state’s local road and bridge matching grant fund. The Community Crossings initiative has provided more than $1 billion in state matching funds for local construction projects since 2016.
To qualify for funding, local governments must provide local matching funds of 50% for larger communities or 25% for smaller communities and have an asset management plan for maintaining existing roads and bridges. State law requires annually that 50% of the available matching funds be awarded to communities within counties with a population of 50,000 or fewer.
Community Crossings awards
Hancock County: $798,500
Greenfield: $1 million
McCordsville: $989,314.50
Cumberland: $415,424.16
Total: $3,203,238.66
Source: Indiana Department of Transportation
