Work on the South Shore Line's West Lake Corridor continues at its south end on the structure bridging the CSX freight railroad over an extended Main Street, and with a new project near the corridor's north end on buildings at a maintenance and storage facility.
"Rework" is also commencing along the length of the 9-mile line, to put in equipment needed to isolate voltage that strays from the railroad's electrical infrastructure. The equipment was not originally installed due to the contractor's oversight, according to railroad officials.
That work is expected to be completed by mid-November, South Shore President Michael Noland told the railroad's Board of Trustees at its Monday meeting, and the bridge work at the Munster-Dyer Main Street Station in late September or early October.
"We are still targeting an end-of-year potential completion and opening of service," Noland said. "That is a moving target— we'd like to see it improved, but that's our best guess."
In addition to construction work being completed, the new line, to be known as the Monon Corridor, will need to be tested and crews trained on it before revenue service starts.
Meanwhile, some preliminary traffic has already run along the line, with trucks outfitted to run on rail tracks used for tours by train dispatchers, and, beginning Monday morning, South Shore diesel locomotives testing clearances along the line.
Construction work at Gateway Station
The new maintenance buildings will be near the Hammond Gateway Station, where the Monon Corridor will meet up with the existing line, the Lakeshore Corridor. A full maintenance yard had been planned there, but was removed from the project when initial project bids came in too high.
Two buildings on the former site of a trucking company will be renovated for maintenance use, and a salt shed and storage shed will be built. The work will be done by Hasse Construction, which also built the new Miller Station for the South Shore, for $2 million, the lowest bid among four local construction companies.
South Bend planning continues
The Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District board also heard an update on the proposed South Bend realignment project, which would reroute the South Shore's path into South Bend International Airport and relocate its station to the west side of the terminal.
An updated environmental assessment is now in the hands of the Federal Railroad Administration for its review, and discussions are ongoing with local authorities in St. Joseph County and South Bend about funding for the project. The state has budgeted $28 million for the project and NICTD $6 million. Another $12 million will need to come from public and private local sources.
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Then, with $56 million in state and local funding, an application would be put in for a matching amount from the federal Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements program.
Noland said a funding opportunity from that program could be made available this fall.
Property actions approved
Also Monday, the board approved a sublease at the Beverly Shores Station through which Indiana Landmarks will take responsibility for much of the building, which includes a museum and art gallery, with the intention of securing grants for its renovation and maintenance.
The South Shore will still utilize the front part of the historic structure for passenger use, will provide $5,000 annually for maintenance and will maintain insurance coverage of the structure. The land on which the building sits is owned by NIPSCO, which leases it to NICTD.
In another potential property move, the board authorized the railroad's management to utilize eminent domain, if necessary, to acquire a parcel of land owned by the steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs near the old Bailly power station site in Porter County.
The site would be used for an electric substation as part of a 10-year project to refurbish and to add new power substations. NICTD had begun negotiations with previous owner Arcelor-Mittal, which Noland said had agreed to donate the land.
When Cleveland-Cliffs took ownership of Arcelor's mills, negotiations continued, again with the possibility of a donation, but "we've been trying for the past year to get that across the finish line" without success, Noland said.
NICTD needs control to complete the environmental process required to get the project engineering going, he said.
Management software system purchased
Also Monday, the board approved $2.5 million in purchases from two companies of new railroad management software to replace a "homegrown" set of software used to manage railroad and office operations.
"We are now leaping from the 1990s to 2025," Noland said.
A management team spent five months reviewing and refining proposals that led to contract awards to the firms MaxAccel and Vertosoft.