Planning for four new segments of the Marquette Greenway is ready to begin in earnest after Thursday’s approval by the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission of an engineering contract for about 9 miles of the 60-mile Chicago-to-New Buffalo, Mich., trail system.
The contract with Butler, Fairman and Seufert addresses Greenway segments in Gary, Portage, Michigan City and New Buffalo. The contract, for a maximum $954,600, will be funded from the $17.8 million federal RAISE grant that NIRPC secured in late 2021.
The Marquette Greenway includes financial commitments from national, state and local governments for a variety of projects connecting trails and shared roadway with new trail segments along the south shore of Lake Michigan. The partnership “exemplifies how this region has come together to create something beneficial for all three counties,” NIRPC Executive Director Ty Warner said in advance of the vote to approve the contract.
The trail segments in the current project:
Gary: 3.9 miles of multi-use trail along the South Shore Line rail corridor from Cline Avenue to the trail north of Second Avenue. The project will include rehabilitation of a railroad bridge over the Indiana Toll Road, in conjunction with the City of Hammond, and a new pedestrian bridge over railroad tracks about a half-mile east of Cline Avenue.
Portage: 1.5 miles of multi-use trail eastward from Ogden Dunes to the Little Calumet River, then southward to the trail north of Ameriplex Road. The project will include a new pedestrian bridge over the river and a boardwalk along the river where it is crossed by U.S. 12 and railroad tracks.
Michigan City: 3.4 miles of multi-use trail (the Singing Sands Trail), along Trail Creek from Liberty Trail to U.S. 12, and along Karwick and Grand Beach roads from Martin Luther King Drive to the city limits at CR 600W.
New Buffalo: 0.4 mile of multi-use trail and 0.3 mile of shared roadway along U.S. 12 through the city to a trailhead at Smith Street.
Butler, Fairman and Seufert will provide a variety of engineering and planning services and will facilitate selection of a contractor for preliminary design work and selection of a contractor to complete the design work and build the project. Butler, Fairman and Seufert also will provide general monitoring and management for the project as NIRPC’s representative.
The contract anticipates issuance of a request for proposals to perform preliminary design work be completed by June 15. Documents soliciting bidders to complete design work and build the trail segments are to be ready for advertising by May 1, 2024.
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