Indiana cities, towns, and counties can once again get state funding help for road work. “We are happy to announce today that the program that so many in local government covet, our Community Crossings Matching Grant program, is back,” Indiana Department of Transportation Commissioner Joe McGuinness announced Wednesday.
With Community Crossings, the state covers 50 or 75 percent of the cost of qualifying road and bridge projects. A July call for projects was postponed, since the decrease in travel caused by COVID-19 led to uncertainty with gas tax revenues. McGuinness said the state will start taking applications next Friday. The deadline for this round is Friday, October 23. Grant recipients are expected to be announced in mid-November.
A total of about $68 million will be available in this round, just over half of what was awarded in the January call for projects. “It is geared towards leveraging our state matching dollars with those locals for existing roads and bridges,” McGuinness added. “This isn’t a new capital program. This is to take care of what we have.”
He also reported that traffic has nearly rebounded to pre-pandemic levels. Overall traffic is down by only 13 percent from where it was in mid-March, while freight traffic may actually be slightly higher.
