Monday, December 13, 1999
Light rail studies back on track
BY TANYA ALBERT
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Preliminary engineering and environmental impact studies for a proposed light rail system from Covington to Blue Ash could resume in the next month.
The director of the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments (OKI), which is studying the system, said he expects to send a letter to the consulting firm this week asking them to restart the studies.
They stopped in October because OKI didn't have money to pay them. Since then, Ohio has paid $300,000 it pledged and local communities and organizations paid another $150,000.
“We will be back up to full speed,” said Jim Duane, di rector of OKI.
The slowdown isn't unusual and won't hurt the overall timetable to finish the studies by spring 2001.
Federal, state and local agencies are paying for the $11.8 million preliminary engineering and environmental studies. During this fiscal year, which ends June 30, the federal government pays for 80 percent of the preliminary engineering costs.
Federal money was available, but OKI couldn't spend it without 20 percent local matching money.
It's not uncommon for OKI to wait for state and local money; time was built into the project to accommodate that.
“But it will make the timetable tighter,” said Warner Moore, OKI project manager for the Interstate 71 corridor study that includes light rail.
OKI proposes an 18-mile line from 12th Street in Covington to Cornell Road in Blue Ash. It would pass through downtown Cincinnati to the University of Cincinnati, Norwood and Deer Park.
Preliminary engineering is the third of five stages necessary to bring light rail to Greater Cincinnati.
Voters will decide whether light rail gets built. A decision could come in spring 2001 to help pay for part of the proposed $743 million line. If voters were to approve a yet-to-be-determined tax, the line could open in 2008.
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