BY BRANDON HONIG, Timesof Northwest Indiana Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON | The House Friday passed an appropriations bill that earmarks $5 million for improvements along the South Shore Railroad, $1 million for the Gary/Chicago International Airport expansion project and $500,000 to assess the feasibility and need for a regional bus system in Lake and Porter counties.
The Senate has not yet voted on the bill -- the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Act of 2006 -- but is expected to act on it shortly.
Both houses must pass a transportation and housing appropriations bill before they adjourn this year.
The $5 million earmarked for the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District would be used to modernize the South Shore Railroad's signal system and its overhead power system. NICTD spokesman John Parsons said both systems date back to the 1920s, but they do not endanger commuter safety.
"It's primarily an issue of improving operational reliability," Parsons said.
"The overhead power system is prone to weaknesses in the system, (and) when there are power-related failures it delays trains."
Parsons added that updating the signal system will improve reliability by allowing NICTD to move trains seamlessly from one track to another, thus avoiding obstacles such as construction areas.
About 80 percent of the signal system between Gary and Chicago's Kensington station has been upgraded, Parsons said.
NICTD next will begin work on the signal system between Gary and Michigan City before addressing the overhead power systems in those two areas. The final phase of the improvement project will address the systems between Michigan City and South Bend.
Altogether, the improvement project will cost approximately $100 million, about $60 million of which will come from the federal government, Parsons said. NICTD still needs about $17.8 million to complete the project and expects to finish in 2009.
The airport expansion project is still in the design stage, with groundbreaking expected late next year or early 2007. Airport Director Paul Karas said the airport has begun to acquire land for the project, some of which will be used as a relocation site for the EJ & E rail line.
The rail line now is only about 200 feet away from the end of the runway, violating federal specifications.
"The runway is safe, but like 38 percent of the runways in the country today, it does not meet Federal Aviation Administration standards," Karas said in a September interview.
The rail line will be 1,000 feet from the runway once relocation is complete.
In addition to meeting FAA standards, the relocation will allow Gary to extend the runway, thus enabling it to handle planes with heavier loads and farther destinations.
"One of these days we want to be doing nonstops to the West Coast, Mexico and the Caribbean," Karas said Friday.
Relocation of the rail line will take approximately one year. The runway expansion, which will begin after the relocation is complete, will take about two years.
Karas also said the airport may add another terminal in the future, though he did not predict a timetable.
"We have space and land to incrementally expand the terminal we already use," Karas said.
"We can add another eight gates or so without much problem. The question is when we will move to another terminal site, and that all depends on the buildup of traffic."
According to Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Ind., the airport has received $18.2 million in federal support so far. Karas said another $70 million will be needed to complete the expansion project.
The majority of the airport project's funding is expected to come from the federal government, Karas said, with Northwest Indiana's Regional Development Authority providing "small" matching funds for any federal assistance.
Visclosky noted in a statement that the appropriations measure passed Friday also includes $500,000 for a comprehensive bus-system study in Lake and Porter counties. Separate bus services currently are offered by different municipalities in the area.