By Heart of Illinois ABC
NORMAL – Local tax dollars will be spent to pay a project manager for a future Connect Transit transfer center in Downtown Bloomington.
Twin-Cities’ based TLR Associates will be paid $160 per hour to oversee construction of the $18 million transfer center , which is expected to be finished in late 2022.
“For a project of this magnitude and complexity of the Downtown Bloomington Transfer Center, there is insufficient expertise on staff to adequately manage such a complex project,” Connect Transit staffers said in a report to the bus system’s board of trustees.
Connect Transit’s current transfer point is just north of the McLean County Law and Justice Center on Front Street, and does not protect waiting passengers from the cold, or keep them safe late at night.
The project is moving to site acquisition and preliminary design faces. While local dollars will be spent on the project manager, the rest of the cost will come from state and federal sources, including a $7 million grant from the Rebuild Illinois capital program and an $8 million bus and bus facilities grant from the Federal Transit Administration.
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