South Shore 25-mile, double track project gets state support

Expected to cost about $290 million in total, the double track project will have $120 million to $130 million centered in Michigan City, according to South Shore Line president Mike Noland. Nearly half the total project cost, this would include a new train station, replacing the tracks currently embedded in 11th Street and creating dead-end streets at about a dozen roads that now cross the tracks.

The current South Shore route through Michigan City isn’t expected to change, but 11th Street will be changed to one-way, eastbound traffic to make room for a second set of tracks.

In regard to local sources of funding, Meer said all four counties involved will likely have a share – Lake, Porter, La Porte and St. Jospeh.

Officials still have yet to say how much of this project Michigan City will be responsible for, but Meer said on Friday the city’s share will come from the North Tax Increment Financing fund. This fund captures increased property tax revenue within the TIF boundaries on the north end.

Previous conversations estimated the total double track project to cost about $220 million. But Noland confirmed that the estimate is now closer to $290 million after consulting with HDR Engineering, which helped to create a more solid estimate.

This number includes a federally required $50 million contingency and $15 million for inflation.

Noland said about half of the total project cost is expected to come from federal funds, but the remainder will need to come from state and local sources.

“We need $145 million from the state – whether that’s state or local or both,” he said in a phone interview on Friday, hopeful half of that number will eventually come from the state.

He called Holcomb’s $20 million commitment a “placeholder in his budget.”

Noland, who also went downstate this week for conversations with Holcomb and other legislators, said the governor is supportive of this project.

But legislators involved in the double tracking realize that more than this $20 million from the state will need to be raised before NICTD can approach the federal government in September with a request to match.

Meer agreed that the dollar amount budgeted by Holcomb this week was merely a placeholder.

“We’re not concerned with the dollar amount because it’s more of a hold pattern – putting something in place until all the numbers are worked out,” Meer said. “There’s still a lot of leg work to do to structure this.”

Meer and Noland said there was support from both sides of the aisle among state senators and representatives, as well as Holcomb.

“He seemed really passionate about the project, and that was really helpful,” Noland said of the governor.