The Indiana Department of Transportation announced Tuesday it has awarded or advertised for bid all $658 million of the state's highway and bridge allocations under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The commitment of all the roadway funds marks an important milestone for a state that initially was slow out of the gate on committing some stimulus funds but has made up the distance in a hurry.

"While the full impact of the Recovery Act has not yet been seen, Indiana's state and local transportation agencies led the nation in awarding more shovel-ready projects than any other state," INDOT Commissioner Michael Reed said.

In all, INDOT oversaw the bidding process for 1,082 projects in all 92 Indiana counties, which works out to an average of $608,000 per project. Those projects ranged from walking-trail construction to bridge replacements. INDOT said it was able to fund more projects than it at first had projected, because actual construction bids came in 15 to 20 percent below engineers' estimates.

Nationally, the U.S. Department of Transportation is dishing out $48.1 billion in stimulus funds with $34.1 billion already spent or in the process of being awarded, according to figures compiled by the nonprofit newsroom ProPublica.

Although Indiana has spent or is in the process of bidding all its stimulus allocation for road and bridge projects, it still can apply for other stimulus dollars for transportation through other stimulus grant programs.

Just two weeks ago, the Federal Railroad Administration awarded INDOT $71 million under the $8 billion stimulus high-speed rail initiative. It will be spent on projects designed to relieve freight and passenger rail congestion at the Porter Junction, where Amtrak, Norfolk Southern and CSX tracks cross.