Dubois County Plans 2026 Highway, Bridge Projects With Six-Figure Savings

Club Road will close for five to six weeks beginning in late March or early April as the Dubois County Highway Department replaces the beams and deck on Bridge 199, part of a 2026 infrastructure package county officials say will generate close to $100,000 in savings.

County Highway Engineer Levi Leffert presented an update on the year's road and bridge projects at a recent public meeting, outlining work on three bridges and explaining how contract awards and procurement decisions are producing six-figure savings for taxpayers.

The largest single funding source for the package is the INDOT Community Crossings program, whose fiscal year 2026 awards were announced December 9, 2025. Dubois County was among the recipients that received $1 million. When project estimates came in below expectations, however, the county's actual draw from INDOT for Community Crossings project 2026-01 settled at just over $902,000. The gap between the approved ceiling and the final disbursement amounts to nearly $100,000 in savings to the state. County officials stressed that all planned projects will still be completed.

Bridge 199 on Club Road is the most immediately pressing work. County crews will handle the beam and deck replacement in-house, a choice that avoids contractor overhead and keeps the project on a tight timeline. The closure is expected to last five to six weeks, and the department is sequencing the work deliberately: the goal is to have Bridge 199 finished before paving of Club Road, which is scheduled for on or after June 1.

The other two bridge jobs are going to a private firm. C&R Construction was awarded the contract to perform bridge deck overlays on Bridge 107 and Bridge 240, with that work expected to begin in spring or early summer. The split approach, county crews on Bridge 199 and C&R Construction on the overlay projects, reflects the kind of procurement decisions county officials credited with producing the overall savings.

The Community Crossings Matching Grant Program has provided funding to cities, towns, and counties across Indiana to make improvements to local roads and bridges since its launch in 2016, and INDOT reduced the annual cap from $1.5 million to $1 million per local unit of government per state fiscal year ahead of this cycle. For Dubois County, hitting the maximum approval and then seeing estimates come in lower meant the county keeps its full project list intact while the state recoups unspent funds.

Drivers who use Club Road regularly should plan for the detour during the five-to-six-week closure window starting as early as this week. Additional details on the 2026 project schedule are available through the Dubois County Highway Department at duboiscountyin.org.