By PAULENE POPARAD

Tuesday the Porter Redevelopment Commission was told the Indiana Department of Transportation appears to be standing firm on its request that a new bridge be built over six-lane Interstate 94 for the planned Orchard pedestrian way hike/bike trail.

The trail, which once carried a $1.2 million pricetag, is planned from Woodlawn Avenue north on Waverly Road to U.S. 20 and crosses I-94 north of Hawthorne Park.

Town engineer Hesham Khalil said the town has proposed shifting the centerline of the current Waverly Road bridge so the 8 foot-wide trail could be accommodated on one side. INDOT isn’t sold on the idea and has asked Porter to develop a cost estimate for a new pedestrian bridge.

After the meeting Khalil said the estimate isn’t completed. A proposed bridge over U.S. 20 for Porter’s planned but unbuilt $2.4 million Porter Brickyard Trail is estimated to cost about $500,000.

Redevelopment and Town Council member Paul Childress said the town needs to be prepared if “they try to shove (a new I-94 bridge) down our throat.” He suggested the commission or town apply soon for a program grant or a federal appropriation through U.S. Rep. Peter Visclosky in the event a new bridge is required.

Last month the commission authorized applying for a $200,000 Lake Michigan Coastal Zone grant toward a $300,000 bridge and elevated walkway needed for the Orchard pedway to cross the Little Calumet River south of I-94. The town tax-increment financing or TIF fund would finance the $100,000 difference.

The town previously received about $850,000 in grants for the pedway project and a total $1,944,000 in 2001 and 2003 for the Brickyard Trail in addition to $300,000 from the National Park Service. Groundbreaking for the pedway was pushed back last year to 2007 by INDOT with design to take place this year.

Brickyard Trail construction has been delayed while town officials search for a route from the Prairie-Duneland Trail in Chesterton at 23rd Street to Howe Road in Porter north of U.S. 20 into the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. The latest 3.68-mile proposal uses Marquette Street and south Mineral Springs Road crossing under I-94 at a railroad underpass south of Augsburg Lutheran Church at Beam Street with a spur extending down Beam to Wagner Road.

“There’s a lot to this bike trail that has to be considered,” Redevelopment and Town Council member Jennifer Granat told three new commission members Tuesday. Citizens Lorri Wickberg and Al Raffin as well as council member Bill Sexton are newly appointed.

In a 2006 reorganization Sexton unanimously was elected commission president, Raffin vice-president and Childress secretary/treasurer. Childress reported the TIF fund has a cash balance of $924,325 and $200,000 invested in a certificate. Porter County has yet to pay the town an additional approximately $300,000 in TIF funds from 2005.

The commission owes about $190,000 on a recent upgrade of the Porter Avenue sanitary sewer; a disagreement with the contractor is being resolved prior to payment.

Posted 1/12/2006