Johnson County received two federal grants worth $3.6 million for two bridge projects on Clark School Road.
The two local grants are part of the Indiana Department of Transportation’s 2026 project list the agency announced last week. In total INDOT awarded $100.8 million in federal transportation funding to 54 cities, towns and counties in rural portions of Indiana to invest in local road, bridge, sidewalk and trail projects.
The two bridges are part of the larger Worthsville Road project, which could cost up to $20 million to complete.
Right now Worthsville Road is complete to Franklin Road, but is three miles shy of its planned connection to Shelby County Road 400 North at the county line, said Luke Mastin, county highway director.
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To finish the road, a new section is planned to be built from Franklin Road to Clark School Road, with new intersections with Campbell and Harvey Roads and two crossings of Campbell Ditch. The cost of building the new section of road, crossing water twice and acquiring land drives the cost up significantly, Mastin said.
Worthsville Road would then follow the path of Clark School Road to the county line and would be widened and improved to match the quality of the section of road the county completed last year from Griffith Road to Franklin Road, Mastin said.
The extension is needed to provide a safer path to Interstate 65 for semi-trucks that routinely use county roads to get there from Interstate 74 in Shelby County. Semis taking that shortcut and getting stuck on rural roads have caused headaches for residents, highway employees and law enforcement for years now.
With these grants for Clark School Road bridges, the road finish line is a little closer but is still years away. Both bridge projects would go to bid in 2025 and start construction in 2026, according to INDOT.
A $2.216 million grant provides funding to replace the bridge over Flatbranch Creek and upgrade a short stretch of the road from the bridge to the Shelby County line.
A $1.394 million grant establishes funding to replace the bridge over Leatherwood Creek.
Both of these bridges currently are narrow, have no shoulder and have weight limits of 15 and 10 tons, respectively, Mastin said. The bridge over Leatherwood Creek is also the lowest-rated bridge that is not already under design or construction for repair or replacement, he said.
The county is required to provide a 20% funding match for the projects. For both grants, the funding match would be around $721,000.
As the 2026 projects draw closer, Mastin plans to keep looking for grants to secure funding for the rest of the Worthsville Road project. Since so much money is required, unless another funding source presents itself, the hope is to keep chipping away with grants, he said.
“It is slow, but we are getting there,” he said
