By Rusty Nixon Correspondent
PLYMOUTH — The city of Plymouth will have a partner as it undertakes the Oak Road project.
The Federal Highway Administration has awarded an additional $500,000 to the city in Group III funds for the project.
“This is part of the LPA (Indiana Department of Transportation Local Public Agencies Transportation Enhancement) program that the project was already a part of,” said Plymouth City Engineer Rick Gaul. “We went in and asked for more money, and we got it.”

The process involved presentations to INDOT as to why the program merited an increase in funding.
“Basically you have to jump through some hoops to get it,” said Gaul. “Evidently they liked what we had to say. They could just have easily turned us down. There were three other projects up for that money.”
The city had some help in jumping through those hoops from the Michiana Area Council of Government.
“James Turnwald of MACOG was very helpful and went with Rick and I to make the presentation to INDOT on the project,” said Plymouth Mayor Mark Senter. “You never know coming out of these meetings what’s going to happen but we were very pleasantly surprised. This will go a long way to helping this project.”
The FHWA funds, which are administered by INDOT, may be used as reimbursement for construction phase of a project.  This reimbursement cannot exceed 80 percent of the total project cost.  The City of Plymouth will be required to submit paid bills before reimbursement unless other arrangements are specifically made.  
In addition, the City of Plymouth will be required to submit 20 percent of total construction cost before the release of any funds and maintain a schedule to demonstrate willingness to complete the project in a timely manner or the funding may be withdrawn.  
“Oak Drive (formerly Oak Road) is a very important part of the city for retail shopping. This area needs to be improved for safety and aesthetic reasons,” said Senter. “That’s one of our most important TIF districts out there. These funds will help us to reach this goal without costing the city as much money.”
According to Gaul, the project includes widening the road to two traffic lanes on each side of a center turn lane from U.S. 30 to Hoham Drive. There is also a traffic light planned for the area where the main driveways of Kmart and Wal-mart sit across from each other.
“We’ll need to do some land acquisition as part of this,” said Gaul. “We’ll probably be ready to bid in March of 2010.”