March 14, 2009
$12.5 million would pay for bridge over rail yards at Avon
By Bruce C. Smith
bruce.smith@indystar.com
Hopes are rising among Avon officials that the gush of federal money intended to stimulate the economy may finally pay for the most expensive piece of Ronald Reagan Parkway.
The town and Hendricks County are asking for $12.5 million to build about a mile of the road between U.S. 36 and County Road 100 South.
The section is so costly because it includes a long bridge to span the CSX Conrail yards.
Some other one-mile sections of the road have been built. The proposal is to connect I-70 to I-74 and north to I-65.
If the bridge over Conrail is built, then just one more mile from 100 South to near 200 South would complete the section between I-70 and U.S. 36 and give Avon a more direct route to the interstate and Indianapolis International Airport.
An application has been made for a grant from a pool of about $39.5 million of stimulus funding to the Indianapolis Regional Transportation Council. That agency coordinates planning of road and related projects for most of the metro area, including Hendricks County.
Lori Miser, executive director of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Planning Organization, said the metro agency's technical committee of engineers and planners agreed this week that the Reagan bridge could qualify for funding.
Final word on the projects to receive money is expected late this month after meetings of the regional planning organization's policy committee. The organization includes about 40 representatives of counties, cities and towns in the metro area.
The Ronald Reagan bridge over Conrail is the largest single project on the one-page list of projects vying for funding. They include new roads and repairs to existing bridges, mostly in Hendricks, Johnson and Marion counties.
For a project to qualify for the money, it must have been designed to federal standards, including environmental and other regulations. It also must be "shovel ready," meaning the design, engineering and purchase of land or right of way is done so construction could start within weeks.
Ronald Reagan Parkway, which has been discussed, designed and planned in sections for nearly 25 years, meets those requirements to qualify for the stimulus grants, according to Avon Town Manager Tom Klein.
He told a joint meeting of the Town Council and the town's Redevelopment Commission this week that other contenders for the funding were eliminated in recent days because they don't meet those requirements.
The highly visible $130 million construction of roundabouts on Keystone Avenue in Carmel doesn't qualify, he said, because "those were designed locally to local standards."
The second-largest project on the list of technically qualified proposals is a share of a $4.9 million streetscape reconstruction of U.S. 40, or Main Street, through Plainfield.
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