Tipton — Tipton County has received $1.56 million from the Indiana Department of Transportation for road work that will better accommodate the future resident of an 80,000-square-foot factory on U.S. 31.
The state department on Friday announced the awarding of the grant, which will cover 80 percent of the costs for Tipton County to extend the partially completed 560 West.
The road is directly east of the future Tipton location of Abound Solar Inc. President Barack Obama announced July 3 that the solar-panel manufacturer would buy the empty plant that was a failed venture between Getrag Corporate Group and Chrysler LLC.
Tipton County Commissioner Jane Harper said the county should be able to pay for its 20 percent match for the grant, which is $390,000, by using remaining money from when it first began building the road. The work stopped after Getrag and Chrysler filed for bankruptcy and backed out of construction of the would-be transmission plant in 2008.
The road work will expand 560 West to span the distance between Ind. 28 and Division Road to the north.
Having a completed road will allow Abound Solar to have more than one entrance for its parking lot.
The road wasn’t a necessity for the county to sell the building to Abound, but it will be an advantage for the Colorado-based company, Harper said.
“What’s completed [with 560 West] will actually serve their needs,” she said. “But from the county’s perspective, and just for an overall one ... when considering conditions and shift changes and traffic and things like that, when you only have one exit ... you can have a back up well into the parking lot.”
And with the introduction of Abound and its promised 850 jobs to the area, the improved infrastructure could further foster economic development, she said.
The road project will also replace an aged and damaged railroad crossing near the plant.
Tipton County received the largest portion of INDOT’s grant awards at about 43 percent of the total $3.6 million.
INDOT spokesman Harry Maginity said Tipton was one of three counties to receive awards from the department’s Greenfield District. A total of eight applicants sought more than $12 million.
The state issued the grants with funding from the Federal Highway Administration’s Group IV Local Public Agency program.
• Daniel Human is the Kokomo Tribune business reporter. He can be reached at 765-454-8570 or at daniel.human@kokomotribune.com.
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