09-23-19 Community Investment - Laserfiche WebLink

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CITY OFSOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK Michigan City, IN, where primarily we're single track territory. We'll be adding a second track along the entire route in that area with a number of what we call high speed cross overs so trains can go from one(1)track to another,back and forth. Basically,and essentially passing lanes.We'll be upgrading three (3) stations so that they have high level platforms like we have here at the airport. So, passengers can board at level. So, it's positive not only for riders with disabilities, but for those who want to take bikes. It also speeds up the ingress and egress tremendously. So,there's a number of reasons why this section of track of twenty-five (25) miles is important to the South Bend community, because it's a bottleneck until we get to Chicago. So, it's a two (2) part process that we have to try to speed up the trains from South Bend to Chicago. Our goal is ninety (90) minutes, ninety(90) miles. The first (1st) part is to do double tracking. The second (2nd) part will be figuring out an alternative location to going into the eastside of the airport. So, both of those things are necessary in order to get to that ultimate goal. This will get us to about an hour and forty-five minutes to Chicago,and the remaining time savings would be whatever decision is made on the relocation of the airport. From a progress stand point, we submitted to the Federal Government in June, a financial plan and a request to enter the engineering phase of the Federal Governments Capital Investment Grant process.The Fed's originally started off in a fifty-fifty(50- 50) share mode. The new Administration has decided they'd like to see a higher local share. So, they've asked us to come up with sixty-two percent (62%) of the funds on this project. So, the State of Indiana share has gone up. Initially, the ask of the Counties was 18.25 million. The State came up with the other half of that amount. So, now we've had to come up with additional funds and I'll leave it up to my colleague here from the Indiana Finance Authority, Mark Pasquarella to describe what the State did to address that issue. We submitted our financial plan and request to enter engineering in June. We hope to hear a decision by the end of this year,which would include a project rating. Mr. Noland continued, We expect a medium-high project rating, which is one (1) of the higher g � ratings the Federal Government will give with these kinds of projects. Our goal is to start construction in 2021 and revenue service in 2023. Why is it important in this area? Well, for one (1)thing, it will triple our ridership out of South Bend. South Bend becomes part of the commute. Now, it's at the longer end of the commute,but it still becomes part of a commuter's travel to and from Chicago. If you look across the lake over in Milwaukee, when Amtrak drove it's time down, ninety (90) miles, they got down to about an hour and a half(1 '/2). They're now serving about eight-hundred and fifty thousand (850,000) rides a year to and from Chicago. There are people who commute. There are also people who go in two (2)or three(3) days a week and it strengthens the business communities. Its a job connector. As much as it is a connector for people who are commuting to jobs, it's also a business to business connector. So, both economies in Milwaukee and Chicago thrive, and we can see the same thing here for South Bend. In addition to that, a lot of times when you have, and I've heard this from over at Notre Dame when they talk about recruiting professionals and professors to the campus, they always talk about how when they recruit for their positions, but the spouse or the partner that is coming along, the question is, well what do I do?Well,with faster access to Chicago, and it's the third largest economy in the country, that opens up an entire new job market as you're trying it for recruiting tools, as you're trying to attract new talent here to the South Bend area. So, we're excited about this project. We're looking forward to taking it to the next step. One (1) of the things that we need to do is complete our financial plan. That financial plan calls for the four (4) counties to make their contributions one EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f 574.235.9173 TTD 574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 3