By WMBD TV
NORMAL, Ill. (WMBD) — In a race against the clock, the Normal Town Council, on a 4-3 vote, approved a $34 million contract for Peoria-based P.J. Hoerr to complete the Uptown Underpass project.
The concept is to build a tunnel underneath the railway, connecting both sides of the Constitution Trail. The measure hit a snag in March after Millstone-Weber pulled out of their contract bid, citing timeline concerns.
Normal is on the clock for the proposal, as it relies on $16 million in federal BUILD grant money that is set to expire in September 2027. City officials said this money and state grants cannot be redirected to other projects.
At Monday’s council meeting, Mayor Chris Koos reaffirmed this project, which has been discussed for over ten years, as a major priority for the town. Koos said it would bring quality of life, economic development and safety to the community.
“The safety issue, we cannot understate that,” he said. “We had a few students crawling through live freights to get from their housing to class or from class to housing. And it’s an unbelievable scenario to have that happen.”
In November, the town council, on a similar 4-3 vote, approved tax increases to fund the underpass. They increased the hotel tax from 6% to 8%, and the food and beverage tax from 2% to 2.25%. These dollars are expected to pay off the $12 million bond the town took on to help fund the project.
These taxes went into effect on April 1 and will sunset after 25 years.
However, it’s those local dollars that have some council members saying the project is too expensive.
Another funding issue was raised by Council Member Scott Preston, an opponent to the measure. Preston said their $16 million in federal grant money could be taken away by the Federal Railroad Administration since the project has already missed key deadlines, such as construction start dates, laid out in their deal.
“We’re talking $16.1 million that, should we go forward with the contract with P.J. Hoerr, we have the liability out there, the exposure. If the FRA pulls the money and then what? Then you come back to council and saying, well, we need another $16.1 locally because we pulled it and we knew they could and they had grounds to do so,” he said.
That was a similar opinion held by Council Member Kathleen Lorenz, another no vote on the proposal.
“That we are moving ahead without a re-inked FRA grant agreement. And to use words like we feel comfortable and we’re having a positive conversation on a $42 million project, given the fiduciary responsibility that we all have in this room. We could enter the town into that kind of agreement and the potential liability that carries with it,” she said.
But if a majority of council members voted no on the measure, that grant money already allocated for the project would be lost, said city officials. They could have also been held liable for paying back money already spent, that being $2.5 million in federal dollars.
Koos, alongside Council Members Karyn Smith, Kevin McCarthy and Rory Roberge, gave the votes necessary to move the project forward.
For Smith, the project was personal. Among her list of positives, she said this project would help the accessibility issue. She said her daughter is special needs, who doesn’t have mobility issues, but only “travels at two speeds: slow or stop.”
“Beyond that, I got a taste of what it’s like to have mobility issues when I had both of my knees replaced and was dependent on a walker for a time and walking across railroad tracks, you can run the risk of putting them down in the wrong place at one time and falling,” she said.
“I feel strongly that this underpass will allow anybody to go from one side of the tracks to the other without requiring a tram or some special accommodation. And because it will no longer be a separate but equal,” she continued.
Koos said two developers have looked into building south of the train tracks, but only would if the underpass project were completed.
“Both have said their projects would not fly without that underpass,” he said. “They felt that they needed that connection to the existing uptown area to benefit the projects that they were doing.”
In total, the project costs $42.8 million, up from the $40.3 million cost predicted in November. The project is made up of roughly $28 million in state and federal grant funding, with $15 million funded locally.
Construction is scheduled for July, with the project expected to be completed by June 1, 2028.
Council Member Andy Byars was the third no vote.
WMBD TV first reported on this story. You can read the original story online at CIProud.com.
