The Gary/Chicago International Airport Authority on Monday voted 5-0 to borrow up to $35 million, which financial advisers say will close the last funding gap in its runway expansion project.
When bond proceeds are combined with available cash and grant money totaling $39.6 million, the airport will have enough to expand the runway and move all railroads, Sycamore Advisors Senior Vice President Melanie Shaker told the authority at its regular meeting Monday at the airport administration building.
And that funding plan, only recently devised, should leave the airport with enough money to fund other needed projects, Shaker said.
"You want to get the job done," said bond counsel Rich Hill after the meeting. "But you don't want to strip the airport of its normal operating and maintenance budget."
There was some fear environmental issues and the demands of railroads could hike the total cost of the project beyond the airport's means. But that apparently has not happened.
The total cost of the project now rings up at $174.1 million, which is just 4.8 percent above the last revised estimate of $166.2 million, which was released in March 2012, according to officials at the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority.
The RDA has directed $50 million in grants to the airport expansion, including authorizing $7.2 million two weeks ago for an escrow fund that will pay for rail relocations north of the airport. Multiple railroad tracks must be moved because one currently blocks the runway expansion and its reroute causes complications for others.
The RDA board is confident the project can be completed by next year's deadline under the airport's new plan, said RDA CEO Bill Hanna. He said discussions over environmental and railroad issues will continue to play out in public, but everyone now feels a sense of urgency with next year's Federal Aviation Administration completion deadline looming.
"I feel they will hit the mark," Hanna said. "There is a sense this job has to get done."
- Source: http://www.nwitimes.com
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