Community Crossings Matching Grant Program

The Community Crossings Matching Grant Program is an Indiana Department of Transportation program launched in 2016 to help Indiana cities, towns, and counties improve local roads and bridges. The program represents a partnership between INDOT and local communities, including both urban and rural jurisdictions, and is intended to support infrastructure investments that contribute to economic development, job growth, and safe and efficient transportation networks. Following legislative changes, the Community Crossings fund is capped at $100 million per year, and the annual maximum award available to an individual local unit of government has been reduced from $1.5 million to $1 million per state fiscal year. Eligible Community Crossings projects include road and bridge preservation, ADA-compliant improvements associated with preservation projects, and material costs for chip sealing and crack filling operations. Only roads included in the applicant's Certified Road Inventory are eligible for funding, and road names entered in the application must exactly match the official names in INDOT's inventory database. The total project cost limitation for force account work is $375,000. INDOT emphasizes that applicants should submit solid project estimates without contingencies or built-in inflation costs and that projects must be shovel-ready because the timeframe for awarding projects to a contractor has been reduced from four months to three months. The program is open to Indiana local government units that satisfy all applicable requirements. Cities and towns with populations below 12,500 and counties with populations below 55,000 receive an 80 percent state and 20 percent local match structure. Cities and towns with populations above 12,500 and counties with populations above 55,000 receive a 50 percent state and 50 percent local match structure. Applicants must also satisfy asset management, civil rights, road inventory, and other program requirements. A local government with a Community Crossings project more than two years old that has not been closed out may be ineligible for a subsequent call until applicable closeout and funding payback requirements have been satisfied. An approved Asset Management Plan is required for eligibility. Local governments submit their Asset Management Plans annually through the Local Technical Assistance Program at Purdue University's Data Management System, and the annual AMP deadline is December 1. LTAP reviews submissions, requests revisions when necessary, and issues a local approval letter after approval. The applicant should not submit the full Asset Management Plan with its Community Crossings application; the LTAP approval letter is the required application documentation. PASER data included in applicable pavement asset management plans must be completed by a certified PASER rater. Each local public agency is also required to submit its contract signing authority and supporting documentation with its application. Applicants receiving INDOT funding must comply with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and Americans with Disabilities Act requirements. Local governments must have both an ADA Transition Plan and a Title VI Implementation Plan and must maintain compliance to remain eligible sub-recipients. A compliant Title VI Implementation Plan is due to INDOT on or before October 1 each year for the following federal fiscal year, while Goals and Accomplishment reports are due on or before November 1 each year. The ADA Transition Plan is due every three years and is treated as a living document requiring annual updates as asset conditions change. Title VI and ADA compliance questions may be directed to accessforall@indot.in.gov or Taffanee Keys at TKeys@indot.in.gov. Asset management questions may be directed to Patrick Conner at connerp@purdue.edu or INLTAP@purdue.edu, by telephone at 765-494-4971 or 800-428-7639. For the State FY 2027 call, INDOT opened the Community Crossings application period on September 1, 2026. Applications remain open through 5 p.m. EDST on September 30, 2026. INDOT states that it intends to issue the Community Crossings call each September on an annual basis. This current September 2026 statement supersedes the earlier July 2025 notice indicating that State FY 2027 calls would revert to July. No separate letter of intent, concept paper, pre-proposal, notice of intent, or other pre-application advancement deadline is identified in the supplied program information. Local governments should ensure that their approved Asset Management Plan, Certified Road Inventory, contract signing authority documentation, project estimates, and applicable ADA and Title VI compliance requirements are in order before applying. Based on the stated annual September schedule, the next expected application cycle is September 2027.

Submit solid estimates with no contingencies or built-in inflation costs; ensure projects are shovel-ready for the three-month contractor award timeframe; verify that every proposed road appears in the Certified Road Inventory and that road names exactly match INDOT records; maintain an approved annual Asset Management Plan and required Title VI and ADA compliance.