The South Shore Line will have to wait a bit longer to build a shorter route to South Bend International Airport. Its request for a $60 million Railroad Crossing Elimination Grant from the federal government was not selected in the latest round of grant awards announced Friday.
Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District President Dave Dech says he’s disappointed. "We felt and we still feel that this is a very good project," Dech said. "It’s a very worthy project, and we’ll do some communications here with the FRA in the next week or so and see if we can figure out where we can do better, how we scored out."
The new route would shorten travel times and reduce the number of road crossings, by letting trains access the airport directly from the west. The South Shore Line has secured $56 million for a local match, including comittments from the state of Indiana, the city of South Bend and the private sector.
Dech says the railroad will consider what to do next, whether that’s reapplying for the Railroad Crossing Elimination Grant during the next cycle or looking at other federal grants. “We’ve had a lot of support in Washington. We’ve had a lot of support in South Bend and Indiana. So, it’s not wasted. This might be a building block to another opportunity,” Dech said.
While no funding was awarded to the South Shore Line directly this round, the Federal Railroad Administration did award Cook County, Illinois up to $6.4 million for final design for a future project that would elevate Burnham Avenue over the South Shore and other railroads, east of the Hegewisch station.
In Indiana, the FRA awarded funds for the construction of overpasses in Fort Wayne and Crawfordsville. It also awarded smaller planning grants for a pedestrian bridge in New Haven, Indiana, and future crossing improvements along the Michigan Department of Transportation’s line between Kalamazoo and Dearborn.
The FRA says it looked at factors like project readiness, technical merit and project benefits, when selecting grant recipients.
