The Indiana Department of Transportation awarded Seymour $7.41 million in Federal Highway Administration funding for a project to reconstruct West Second Street from Lasher Drive to the downtown area.

Former city engineer Nathan Frey, who continues to stay involved in some city projects on contract, said the project will complete the West Second Street corridor.

The city will have to come up with a 20 percent or $1.85 million match for a total project cost of $9.3 million.

Construction isn’t slated to begin until 2024.

The purpose of the project is to update the corridor from Lasher Drive to Walnut Street to better accommodate for bicyclists and pedestrians traveling from Seymour High School to the downtown, Frey said.

Drainage structures also will be improved to prevent flooding in the area, and the intersection of Community Drive will be updated with new traffic signals, he said.

New traffic signals also will be installed at the intersections of Chestnut Street and Walnut Street.

The city already has completed two phases of reconstruction to West Second Street from U.S. 50 to Lasher Drive. Like those phases, this project will include new sidewalks, drainage gutters, curbs and curb ramps that are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Receiving the funding is just the first step in the process.

“The city still will need to select a design firm and follow the necessary procedures set forth for development of such a project,” Frey said. “This will include at least three alternatives as to the details of what the project could look like.”

A public hearing will be conducted in the future for the city to gain input on what the public wants to see come out of the project.

“We are most likely a couple years away from that meeting,” Frey said.