Northwest Indiana’s transportation planning agency doesn’t have a voice in whether or how a controversial new freight line should cut through southern Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties, but that doesn’t mean the subject hasn’t come up.
The Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission, which coordinates federal funding for projects in the three counties, doesn’t have a formal role in Great Lakes Basin Transportation’s proposal because is that railroad would be privately financed.
But that doesn’t preclude NIRPC from speaking up later in the process, Ty Warner, NIRPC’s executive director, said at NIRPC’s Executive Board meeting Thursday.
Some NIRPC board members said they’d prefer sooner rather than later on the issue.
Bill Emerson, the Lake County surveyor, said the rail line’s effect on drainage in rural Lake County needs to be studied, and Kevin Breitzke, the Porter County surveyor, added that NIRPC also could look at the line’s economic and environmental impact on farming communities.
Geof Benson, a Beverly Shores Town Council member, said public funding could be involved when the rail line passes over or tunnels under highways.
People alarmed by the proposed railroad — the first new one in the region in more than a century — have packed public meetings in recent weeks in Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties. The county commissioners of Lake and Porter counties have passed resolutions opposing the new line.
Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. said he plans to press NIRPC to speak up.
Great Lakes Basin Transportation wants to add 278 miles of track between LaPorte and southern Wisconsin so freight railroads could bypass Chicago. Frank Patton, GLBT’s executive director, wants to raise $8 billion for the project.
The Surface Transportation Board, a federal agency, is examining the proposed route and will issue an environmental impact statement on the route, and possible alternatives, in about two years.
Warner said NIRPC has offered to share its data and resources with the Surface Transportation Board, and could comment once the route options are clearer.
He added that there’s a link to the Surface Transportation Board process at NIRPC’s website, nirpc.org, under “hot topics.”
Tim Zorn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.