A plan to build a trail across Northwest Indiana would get a major boost if the U.S. Department of Transportation approves a $24.2 million grant, Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission members were told Thursday.
The 58-mile Marquette Greenway Trail, from Chicago's Calumet Park to New Buffalo, Mich., was first proposed by U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky in 2005.
Segments have been built in Hammond and Whiting, and now NIRPC planner Mitch Barloga is hoping for a "home run shot" to propel the project forward.
NIRPC is applying for a TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) grant that would pay about two-thirds of the project's $35.5 million estimated cost.
Cities, towns and counties along the route would be asked for support, and so would the National Park Service and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. Barloga said officials in Michigan have been particularly enthusiastic about the project.
Unlike most other Northwest Indiana trails, most of the Marquette Greenway does not run along abandoned railroad rights-of-way.
Much of its western part goes through industrial areas of Hammond, Gary and East Chicago. It would give many residents there a new way to get to work, Barloga said.
On Gary's east side, the trail would run through Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore land from Broadway into Miller. Other natural areas would surround the trail through Burns Harbor and Porter.
From Dune Acres to Michigan City, the project would help restore the Calumet Trail — Northwest Indiana's first, built in 1972 but fallen into disrepair.
Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott Jr. endorsed the Marquette Greenway project, calling it "super-exciting."
Porter County Surveyor Kevin Breitzke said the project's estimated economic benefit — about $107 million, according to NIRPC — would be about three times its expected cost.
Also at Thursday's meeting, David Wright, marketing manager for Gary Public Transportation Corp., said GPTC's Lakeshore South route, from Hammond into Munster and Highland, will continue next year with expected funding support from Hammond and Lake County. GPTC had said it would discontinue that route without that backing.
Wright also announced that GPTC's Broadway Metro Express, from Gary's Metro Center to the Methodist Hospital in Merrillville, will begin running In February, as will two shuttle services connected to that route.