GARY || Airport authority board members Thursday offered pleas for help from on high to get railroads to make way for airport expansion.
Authority Secretary Michael Doyne said he would like congressional representatives and the governor to put some pressure on railroads.
"This railroad thing needs their horsepower to make things happen," Doyne said.
The airport wants to get contracts in place with three railroads to begin moving the EJ&E railroad tracks, which sit just 130 feet west of the main runway. Under airport plans, those tracks are to be moved westward almost to Cline Avenue to make way for the 1,900-foot expansion of the runway.
In addition to the EJ&E, CSX Corp. and Norfolk Southern Corp. must agree to reconfigure their tracks north of the airport for the move to take place.
"They've done great things for us in the past," said authority chairman the Rev. Marion Johnson Jr., of the congressional delegation and governor. "And now we're sending out an SOS that we really need their help on this project."
The comments followed airport director Chris Curry's report that the Northwest Indiana Forum, which has taken a lead role in negotiations, planned to send railroads a memorandum of understanding on the project within days.
The memorandum has been pounded out over months of negotiations with railroads at the Forum offices and other locales.
But it could still take months to get legal contracts drawn up and signed for construction to begin, Curry said. The airport at one time had hoped to begin construction during the 2007 construction season.
Railroads say moving the tracks presents many issues, but that progress is being made.
"This is a tremendously complicated project from a railroad standpoint, with three different railroads involved," said Norfolk Southern spokesman Rudy Husband. "We are trying to work as quickly as we can through some very substantial engineering, construction and commercial issues."
Under the current plan, CSX would abandon a track and share a track with Norfolk Southern. The EJ&E would pass over the track on a bridge to be constructed north of the airport.
CSX Corp. is comfortable with what has been produced by the negotiations and a contract could be signed within a short period of time, said Earl Wacker, director of CSX's Chicago Transportation Coordination Office, when contacted Thursday.
The EJ&E has long said it has an "agreement in principle" on moving its tracks.
Daniels spokeswoman Jane Jankowski said the governor had not received a request from the airport to get personally involved in the railroad matter. She said if necessary, the governor would probably ask the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority to get involved.
The governor was instrumental in forming the RDA and one of his closest aides, John Clark, serves as its chairman.
The offices of U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Ind., and Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., both said they had received no request to get involved.
Via e-mail, Visclosky's office added that before the congressman would call a meeting with railroads, the airport must do its "due diligence" on the expansion.
Visclosky was instrumental in landing a letter of intent for $57.8 million in Federal Aviation Administration funding for the expansion.
"The success of the airport, which will be an economic engine for Northwest Indiana, is now dependent on people working hard to administer and execute the LOI (letter of intent)," the e-mail stated.
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