The city of Fort Wayne, in partnership with the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC) and the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission (SPC), has retained HNTB Corporation to assist with the implementation of the Midwest Connect Corridor ID Grant.
“This is a long process,” City Councilman and Northern Indiana Passenger Rail Association (NIPRA) board member Geoff Paddock said. “It’s kind of a complicated process and many steps along the way.
As part of the effort to do, to conduct the service development plan, you’re looking at really five states, because you’ve got to include Chicago (Illinois), right, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania.”
The selected engineering consultant, HNTB, has worked on over 40 passenger rail corridors nationwide. With over 110 years in transportation planning and design, HNTB is no stranger to the Midwest Connect corridor, having analyzed sections of the route over the past decade.
They provide fully integrated services for all project phases, including feasibility studies, planning, environmental review, conceptual design, final design, and construction management.
Money to pay HNTB will come from the $500,000 Corridor ID grant from the Federal Railroad Administration that the the city of Fort Wayne received in December.
The federal grant funds Step 1 to develop a scope, schedule, and budget for performing corridor planning and preparing a Service Development Plan to implement passenger rail service from Pittsburgh to Chicago via Fort Wayne and Columbus, Ohio, which will run through Whitley and Kosciusko counties in Northeast Indiana.
“It’s encouraging to see this progress as Fort Wayne continues to lead an effort that will have a lasting and meaningful impact,” said Fort Wayne Mayor Sharon Tucker in the announcement. “As work continues with our partners, it’s our belief that this latest effort gives us the best chance to restore passenger rail services to Fort Wayne.”
Having HNTB will be having the “boots on the ground in several areas” to determine what will be needed to bring passenger rail service back: the addition of rail overpasses, track, trains, signals and more, Paddock said.
As HNTB does it work, Paddock said, it probably can fine-tune figures that have been put forward in the past, such as the estimated cost of $3 million to $5 million per mile for bring rail service to Fort Wayne.
View the full story at fwbusiness.com.