SOUTH MADISON COUNTY — Pendleton, Lapel and Ingalls are among the state’s recipients of the latest Community Crossings Matching Grants Program, awarded recently by the Indiana Department of Transportation.
The three South Madison County communities are getting a combined $1.3 million of INDOT’s $100-plus million awarded to be used on improvements for town’s roads and bridges.
According to the state’s list of communities receiving awards for this round, Pendleton will be getting $820,317. Lapel will receive $444,682 and Ingalls gets $61,740.
Pendleton town manager Scott Reske said, overall, with the inclusion of the town’s match, the project is for $1.2 million and a complete reconstruction of Franklin Street and paving on State Street.
“It’s going to be a whole new road, curb and gutter, storm line and sidewalks,” Reske said. “The storm line that it drains into at State Street is going to be repaired from Franklin Street all the way to where it discharges down into the creek, roughly, at Adams Street.”
Reske added that the reconstruction from Franklin will go from Taylor Street to State Street and include repaving of State Street from Main Street to Adams Street.
Reske said the entire project covers two blocks and expects the actual construction portion of the project will happen during late summer or fall and possibly go into early winter.
He said much of the rebuild on Franklin is due to damage caused by the tornado that hit Pendleton in May 2019.
Lapel’s project covers 1.56 miles of roadway. The areas include Central Avenue from State Road 13 to Ninth Street, 10th Street from State Road 13 to Main Street, Fourth Street from Ford Street to 50-feet west of John Street and Erie Street from 10th Street to 80-feet north of 10th Street.
The project includes installing Americans with Disabilities Act compliant curb ramps, sidewalk reconstruction and road resurfacing.
Both Lapel and Pendleton received grants at the end of 2020, as well. For Lapel, a grant for $699,438 was the largest grant for a road project in town history. It covered 2.23 miles of Lapel roads, including County Roads 200 South, 950 West (Brookside Road) and 500 South (Alliance Road). Also included are Vine Street, 10th Street, Ash Way, Beechwood Drive, Briar Drive and Oakmont Drive.
Pendleton received $317,416 at the end of last year for a project currently under construction on Water Street.
Ingalls town street department supervisor Carl Marlett said the recently awarded grant would include, a town-wide crack seal on roads in the original town neighborhoods north and south of Broadway Street and the Prairie Hollow subdivision. They will also do a cape seal process on a portion of Reformatory Road from town limits on the east side to County Road 650 West.
He said a total of 75,000 square yards of fiberized crack seal will be applied.
“All of it is just road preservation,” Marlett said. “We didn’t choose to resurface anything right now.”
Marlett said with the town’s match, the project cost total is about $80,000.
With an early federal grant awarded to the town through the Madison County Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), Marlett said local matches will be met for 2021. He said the town plans on reapply for Community Crossings grant in the spring of 2022 that would including paving.
The previous grant was to help pay for Ingalls’ County Road 800 South corridor improvement project.
Indiana’s Community Crossings program began in 2016 and provides funding to cities, towns and counties across the state to make improvements to roads and bridges. Cities and towns with a population of fewer than 10,000 receive funds using a 75/25 percent match. Larger communities receive funds using a 50/50 match.
Grants are awarded twice per year.