Development News From Southwest Indiana

City to get $5 million for rail relocation project
By GAYLE R. ROBBINS, associate news editor, Sun Commercial, July 31, 2005

Mayor Terry Mooney never dreamed a 30-minute meeting with Sen. Richard Lugar earlier this month would lead to Vincennes getting $5 million to pay for the eventual relocation of CSX railroad tracks in the busiest parts of the city.

"I had no idea we would be getting this much money this soon," he said during a cell phone call Saturday from Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, where he was waiting to board a 17-hour flight to Taipei, Taiwan, as a member of the state trade delegation visiting the Far East.

" I know Sen. Lugar was interested in the presentation we made in my office at city hall that day, and he promised to have his staff look into what could be done," the mayor said. "But, boy, I didn't think we'd be getting $5 million!"

The money was included in the highway funding bill overwhelmingly approved by Congress July 29. The bill now awaits President Bush's signature.

Lugar added the money during the House-Senate conference on the bill before it moved for a final vote.

The project, entitled "Vincennes Railroad Relocation," will be refined through additional study and design work. A rail bypass will route the heaviest north/south rail traffic around the city and eliminate a large number of roadway-rail grade crossings. The remaining crossings for the east/west rail line are expected be improved to increase efficiency and safety.

The funds will be used for construction projects identified by the study and planned to begin in September 2007.

City Council President Mark Hill also welcomed the news.

"This is just a tremendous opportunity for the city and really all of Knox County," he said. "It's going to improve traffic flow in the city and that's going to be good for businesses, especially those businesses in the downtown area, because it's going to make it a lot easier to get to them."

Hill said he lives a block and a half away from a section of track "so I know firsthand what it's like to have all those trains going through every day."

"It's just so incredibly frustrating when you want to get somewhere but you're stuck waiting for a train to get through," he said. "People just get discouraged going downtown or to other businesses inside the city because they don't want to deal with the waiting."

Mooney said the city's having a well-prepared presentation to make to Lugar while he was here for a July 8 fundraiser at the Fortnightly Club helped greatly.

"We knew he didn't have much time but we were ready to show him all the work we had done before," he said. "We've been working on this thing so long, and I think if there was anything that may have done the trick (to get the money) it was that we were so well prepared and could show Sen. Lugar how disruptive all the train traffic is."

Much of the city's presentation was based on a study conducted a few years ago identifying 47 crossings as causing problems.

"I look back at that study and all the people who helped with it, including CSX," Mooney said. "They really want to see something done just as much as everybody else because if those tracks are relocated it's going to help their business."

Mooney also pointed to Mike Sievers for his help, paying almost half the $50,000 cost of that earlier study.

"And that just goes to show me how people in this community will come together and do what's right for the city, for everybody," he said. "We can't have things like this happen unless we're all pulling together, and that's what happened here. It's not just me or a couple of people, it's everybody working together, members of the (city) council, the chamber of commerce, everybody having a vision and working together."

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