Howard Greninger, The Tribune-Star
TERRE HAUTE — Federal stimulus funds literally helped pave new improvements in Terre Haute and Vigo County, from road projects to a now top-rated runway at Terre Haute International Airport-Hulman Field.
Runway 5-23 is the longest of three runways at the airport. With a designated landing area of 9,020 feet, and 150 feet wide, it serves as the primary landing runway capable of accommodating nearly any aircraft. It is also the only instrument landing system runway at the airport.
“Runway 5-23 was in less-than-favorable condition. It had been ranked at 65, which was not good, but usable, but now the runway is ranked at 100, the highest level,” said airport Director Dennis Wiss.
Rehabilitation of the airport had been part of a five-year plan. Prior to stimulus funds, it was a project that would have taken as long as three years. “When you phase runway construction over an extended period of time, it creates all kinds of headaches,” Wiss said. “Logistically, it creates a nightmare for the airport users.”
“When the stimulus package came out, we said, ‘Here is a chance that we might accelerate the runway project,’ which is exactly what happened. The stimulus money allowed us to combine with other federal airport improvement money to do the runway in one year,” Wiss said.
The $11 million project was able to move forward once the airport was awarded more than $2.72 million in stimulus funds. The rehabilitation project required milling off three inches of asphalt and replacing that with five inches of new asphalt. The extra height allowed the runway to match the level of new 12-foot paved shoulders. The project also included new electrical lighting and fixtures along the runway.
The primary runway has between an extra 1,000 and 1,300 feet on both sides to allow aircraft to come to a halt in the event of an emergency during takeoff or landing.
The airport will finish final touches on the runway this spring, such as a second coat on runway paintings, cutting lateral grooves in the runway to allow water runoff and plant sod.
The project, from March to December 2009, resulted in 14 jobs at the airport, according to the U.S. government’s official Web site, www.recovery.gov, on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
City and county roads improved
Terre Haute and Vigo County received more than $4.51 million for road improvement projects, according to the Indiana Department of Transportation. A breakdown of that money includes an intersection improvement project Vigo County officials will soon start at Seventh Street and Springhill Drive.
That project, which will add turn lanes at that intersection, received $991,533 in stimulus funds.
Several other Vigo County roads also received a facelift from $789,367 of the stimulus funds. That funding covered engineering and asphalt surfacing of Cottom Drive from Singhurst Drive to Indiana 159; Rio Grande Avenue from Baldwin Street to Twin Beach Street; and Rosedale Road from Rio Grande Avenue to Lambert Street.
Jerry Netherlain, county engineer, said these roads were done from stimulus funds awarded on a competitive basis. “It was very limited in what we could do. They were limited to federal aid routes. The roads were cracking and we didn’t just do them because we could. They needed some help and this stimulus funding was a way we found to get that done,” he said.
Vigo County Commissioner Paul Mason said those roads are in the county’s unurbanized area.
“Without that stimulus money, those roads would never have been paved. This is the best preventative maintenance that we could have done. Usually we have to chip and seal to put a Band-Aid approach on it, but we got the stimulus money and it did the job right,” Mason said.
In addition, the county received $51,500 for resurfacing Springhill Drive from U.S. 41 to Seventh Street.
The city of Terre Haute received more than $1.52 million to extend Brown Avenue to Locust Street from Wabash Avenue. That project, now under way, includes updating traffic signals at the intersection with Wabash Avenue.
In addition, stimulus funds helped repair a large drainage pipe running under Interstate 70, just east of the intersection of Indiana 46. The pipe had elevated out of the ground, preventing water from draining, causing state police to temporarily close an exit ramp at the intersection at least twice last year.
The Indiana Department of Transportation repaired that pipe with $626,338 in stimulus funds.
INDOT last month announced it had fully advertised or awarded all $658 million of the state’s allocation for highway and bridge work under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
The act funded 1,082 transportation projects statewide, with 62 percent of the funds invested in economically distressed counties, according to INDOT.
State projects went farther than anticipated as bids came in 15 to 20 percent below engineers’ estimates, allowing some smaller projects to be funded, said Will Wingfield, INDOT spokesman.
INDOT reported 776 road repair or resurface projects; 130 bridge replacement or repair projects; 95 safety improvement projects; 23 new or widened road projects; 35 trail, sidewalk and other enhancement projects; and 32 miscellaneous projects.
In addition to road funds, the city of Terre Haute received more than $1.36 million for its bus transit system. The city purchased six new buses, new fare boxes, radios and upgraded its maintenance garage.
“We would have delayed a lot of the bus purchases and I don’t know when we could have done the maintenance facility. It [stimulus funds] allowed us to do about five or six years of capital projects in one year,” said Mayor Duke Bennett.
Terre Haute also received more than $1.35 million for the city’s police department.
“That paid for six new police officers. That covers their salaries and benefits for three years,” Bennett said. “We had lost officers through retirement and would not have been able to fill those” positions.
Garnering stimulus dollars for Terre Haute took quick action.
“We worked really hard. Some of these funds were allocated based on population and we had to quickly submit plans to get the funds,” Bennett said.
Additionally, the Terre Haute Housing Authority received more than $1.79 million in stimulus funds for new multi-family housing units. The Housing Authority will renovate two unused apartment buildings and construct seven housing units this spring on Lockport Road, south of Hulman Street. The Housing Authority manages 868 units in the city.