Northwest Indiana region to pour $907 million into transport projects over next 5 years

BY KEITH BENMAN, Times of Northwest Indiana
kbenman@nwitimes.com

The Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission has released its five-year road map for region transportation projects including a new emphasis on environmental projects.

Projects set to be softer on the environment range from bike trails to vehicles for municipalities that can run on the ethanol-blended gasoline, also known as E-85.

The plan contains nearly three dozen bike trail projects spread across Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties. Together, the bike trail plans are set to receive millions in federal funds.

The spending on vehicles that can use E-85 includes 60 new police cars for the City of Gary. And catalyst devices for school and municipal buses compliant with new diesel emissions rules will be coming to cities across the three-county region under the plan.

"We have to feel good about this," said Gary Evers, a NIRPC transportation planner. "It's rare we can do anything to help a municipality's budget."

Most of the spending on the projects is detailed in a 50-page, 2009-2013 Transportation Improvement Program released at Tuesday's NIRPC transportation policy committee meeting.

Projects for 2009 already on the books were contained in a spending plan for the final year of the U.S. transportation bill known as the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users or SAFETEA-LU.

The 2009-2013 Transportation Improvement Program is the basis of all NIRPC allocations for the next five years. It will be funded mainly by federal funds appropriated in the next five-year transportation bill.

In total, it allocates $682.09 million in federal funds and details a total of $907.73 million in spending.

That plan does not contain any spending for the proposed South Shore rail extension to Lowell and Valparaiso.

Evers said the South Shore extension must first win local funding support before U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Ind., will seek federal funding.