Local and state governments have pledged their financial backing for the South Shore Line's biggest projects in decades.
Soon the decisions – whether to build the 9-mile West Lake extension from Hammond to Dyer and the 25-mile double-track project from Gary into Michigan City - will be up to a federal agency.
Michael Noland, the South Shore's president and general manager, sounded confident at Friday's Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District meeting.
Based on preliminary evaluations, Noland told the NICTD board, he expects "medium-high" ratings on both projects from the Federal Transit Administration. Last year, he said, every project with a "medium" rating and higher received FTA approval.
West Lake would be the South Shore's first expansion in more than a century, and NICTD says adding a second set of tracks to Michigan City would improve the railroad's speed and reliability. FTA funding, if approved, would pay 50 percent of each project's cost.
NICTD will formally submit its projects for FTA ratings in September. The results could be announced in mid-October, Noland said.
And by late December or early January, he said, NICTD could begin acquiring properties for the projects, if the FTA grants favorable ratings and preliminary environmental approval.
Munster resident Julie O'Connor, of Concerned Families of the West Lake Corridor Project, asked why NICTD would begin buying homes before receiving the FTA's final funding approval.
"It's wrong to seize property through speculation," she said.
Noland said the FTA doesn't grant full funding approval until just before construction is to begin. Waiting until then to buy properties would create unacceptable delays, he said.
The NICTD board agreed, passing resolutions Friday that authorize real estate acquisitions for both projects.
The largest number of acquisitions will be in Hammond, for West Lake, and Michigan City, for the double-track project – about 60 properties in each city, Noland said. About 10 homes in Munster could be taken.
Noland said NICTD has been working with local officials in each community affected by the projects.
The last local funding agreement for the $290 million double-track project came earlier this month, when the St. Joseph County Council agreed to finance its county's share.
And on Monday, the Hammond City Council voted to commit 15 percent of its share of county income tax money for the next 30 years toward the $605 million West Lake project. That's half the amount the Hammond council had approved previously, but Noland seemed unconcerned. "We've just got to sharpen our pencils" to cut costs, he said.
The Indiana legislature and most Lake County cities and towns, plus the county, have made financial commitments for West Lake.
Also Friday:
•The NICTD board learned about a project to improve safety at South Shore crossings by installing flashing lights and gates at 20 crossings that now have just flashers.
Victor Babin, NICTD's chief engineering officer, said the work is funded by an Indiana Department of Transportation grant.
The double-track project would further improve crossing safety in Michigan City, Babin said, by eliminating more than 30 crossings that have only crossbucks or flashers and installing 10 with flashers and gates.
•Noland said re-routing the South Shore tracks to the South Bend airport would cut 10 minutes from the running time and eliminate 16 or more at-grade crossings. South Bend has offered to pay for the project, but NICTD also might seek a federal grant.