GOSHEN -- The next phase of federally funded transportation projects is starting to roll in Goshen, though some stimulus-funded projects won't happen until more than a year after Congress passed the stimulus package.

The Indiana Department of Transportation awarded contracts to Niblock Excavating this week after the Goshen Board of Public Works and Safety authorized INDOT Monday to handle the contracts. Two stretches of road will get new pavement, though it may not happen until spring.

The first is for new paving on Eighth Street between College and Lincoln avenues.

The second is for Bashor Road between Reliance and Elkhart roads.

Niblock will do that work for $379,217.

The city identified the projects in the summer, but the delay in awarding the contracts -- due to federal reporting requirements -- means the work may not happen this year. Asphalt plants close around Thanksgiving, according to Toni Mayo, INDOT spokeswoman. The paving work won't be finished until next fall, according to Mayo.

Sidewalk construction is happening near Parkside Elementary School. The sidewalk work is a 3-year-old project funded as part of the federal "Safe Routes to Schools" program.

The new sidewalks run along New York Street, between Ninth and 12th streets, and along 11th Street, between New York and Burdick streets. That contract was for $209,790.

INDOT also awarded a stimulus-funded contract for $480,000 to replace a small structure on S.R. 15 north of Goshen. The winning bid went to 3-D company to replace the structure over the Osborne Ditch/Wolf Lake drain, according to Mayo. The construction will start in April and finish in the fall.

Some other near-term notable projects with federal funding in the city are the Plymouth Avenue underpass, paid by a mixture of $1.5 million in federal transportation funds and stimulus funds; and the storm water detention facility and water/sewer control system upgrades, paid largely with local funds but with $5 million in stimulus grants.

The underpass project contract was awarded to Anlaan Corp. Work should be completed in June, according to Mayo.

The water and sewer project contracts were already awarded and work has started on those projects, scheduled to be complete in 2011.

Stimulus funds also installed sidewalks on North Seventh Street through the Community Development Block Grant program. That program also is funding work (not using stimulus money) to upgrade Crescent Street and infrastructure along that street.