By Keith Benman, Times of Northwest Indiana
keith.benman@nwi.com
An INDOT chief assured nervous local officials Thursday the state has enough money to pay for a new bridge for Cline Avenue but not enough to fund more grandiose plans that have emerged.
"We have X amount of dollars to put into a solution for traffic and that is traffic as you see it today," INDOT Chief of Staff Bob Zier said Thursday.
Zier spoke via conference-call hookup Thursday morning to a meeting of the board of the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission, which is made up of local officials from 52 communities in Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties.
In turn, the NIRPC board approved a draft memorandum of understanding that would form a Cline Avenue Coalition of local governments and business to "speak with one voice" on the road's reconstruction.
Last week, Zier spent two days meeting with local casino managers, steel company and BP executives and mayors. He wanted to find out about problems they face now and what should be done with Cline Avenue in the long term.
"I saw some wonderful ideas last week that would create new traffic patterns and new development, but we don't have enough money to do all of that to solve all of those things," Zier said.
The elevated lanes of Cline Avenue long have been seen as an obstacle to U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky's Marquette Greenway Plan for increasing public access to Lake Michigan. But neither local officials nor Zier would broach much about what other plans have emerged for Cline in the more than three weeks since INDOT announced it would permanently close the bridge.
Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority Executive Director Bill Hanna said his organization has no specific plan for Cline Avenue but has told INDOT it wants to make sure any new road helps rather than hinders lakefront development.
As the INDOT's point man on the closed bridge, Zier talked about everything from what steps are being taken to detour traffic, to what funding sources might be available for any big plans local officials might come up with.
On Nov. 13, INDOT temporarily closed the 1.2-mile span over the Indiana Harbor and Shipping Canal after receiving an engineering report stating the bridge was no longer safe for heavy truck loads. On Dec. 28, Zier called local business and government leaders to tell them the bridge would be permanently closed and demolished.
On Thursday, Zier revealed INDOT is contemplating opening the bridge to security workers from the BP Whiting Refinery so they can continue to monitor refinery property as they have in the past.
INDOT will conduct a public meeting on the future of Cline Avenue on Feb. 9 in two sessions at East Chicago Central High School. The first session will be from 3:30 to 5 p.m. and the second from 6:30 to 8 p.m.
Zier estimated demolishing the bridge could cost between $20 million and $30 million. INDOT currently has $90 million set aside to partially replace the Cline Avenue span, which was planned for 2012.
Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. asked Zier if INDOT is considering using the $500 million Next Generation Trust Fund that was set up out of the $3.8 billion Indiana Toll Road lease in 2006.
"We could begin to rebuild the infrastructure of Indiana and put thousands of people to work immediately by using it," McDermott said.
Zier said he thought Gov. Mitch Daniels had pretty well answered that question when it was raised by Democratic lawmakers, and the answer was "we need to leave the trust fund alone."
For its Cline Avenue coalition, NIRPC is recruiting lakefront casinos, steelmakers and BP into the effort, NIRPC Executive Director John Swanson said. It also will include Visclosky, the Lakeshore Chamber of Commerce and other regional groups. The mayors of the four lakefront communities also will serve on the coalition.
In all, NIRPC is recruiting about 21 government officials, groups and businesses to serve on the coalition, Swanson said.
"A great deal of work will go into this," new NIRPC Chairwoman and LaPorte Mayor Kathleen Chroback said. "It takes working together to solve problems like this."