The Normal Town Council is being asked to pass a Resolution Authorizing the Execution of a Joint Funding Agreement with the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) for the Underpass Project at Uptown Station. IDOT would fund $4.9 million of the project cost as part of this agreement.
$1.9 million is new funding to reimburse the town for Phase 1 (Preliminary Design). $3 million is for Phase 2 (Detailed Construction Design) and is part of the BUILD grant funding scenario approved by Council on July 19, 2021. The town has already spent $1.4 million on preliminary design. Detailed Construction Design is 60% complete.
The underpass will provide pedestrian, and bicycle access beneath the Union Pacific Railroad. It will connect the north and south passenger platforms for Amtrak passengers and facilitate Constitution Trail users. Normal also says the underpass will promote economic development on both sides of the track.
It’s interesting that despite asking the Federal Railroad Administration for $6 million in additional funding for the project in April after projecting the cost of the project to be $29.9 million based on increased costs resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic, the budget information in the council packet reflects the previous budget estimate of $23.9 million.
Normal’s position is that the 1.9 million they are now being reimbursed for preliminary design can now be used for increased construction costs. So if you add 1.9 million to 23.9 million they are saying they now have 25.2 million they can commit to the project.
These inconsistencies beg the question what is the project budget right now? Is it: $23.9 million? $25.2 million? 29.9 million? Or if we add the $1.9 million to the $29.9 million is it $31.8 million?
Other questions come to mind as well. Is it too much to expect consistency from your local government? At what point does something like submitting one document to FRA showing a revised project budget estimate of one amount then providing a document to town council showing the previous amount become more than inconsistency?
Is Normal staff being deceptive by presenting a document to council that doesn’t show the project budget ballooning to over $30 million now? By doing so have they opened themselves up to potential charges that they have attempted to defraud the federal government?
You can express your thoughts regarding the underpass when the town council meets tonight at 7 pm.
