Danville receives mass transit, rail grants

Sep. 16—DANVILLE — The City of Danville has been awarded grants for Danville Mass Transit and railroad projects.

The grants are for DMT's Route Evaluation and Implementation Plan. A funding breakdown: $160,000 in federal money and $40,000 in state funds for a $200,000 total cost.

The city also is receiving $400,000 in federal funding with a $100,000 local city match for a total cost of $500,000 for a Grade Crossing and Rail Relocation Study.

DMT Director Lisa Beith said with Danville's population loss and being considered a rural and not an urban area anymore for funding sources, one of the things that came up at local meetings is a need for a more streamlined bus transportation operation.

Beith said DMT would make minor changes through the years and put "Band-Aids" on things.

"It's time to start over and do some route changes," Beith said. "We want to get someone to come in and evaluate the service levels and the frequency and what we provide, need to do away with and make changes to."

She said they will be doing this in cooperation with CRIS Rural Mass Transit District, located on Voorhees Street. The two will now be working from the same budget, she said.

Nothing is changing operationally with DMT, other than seeing a combined budget starting next year, Beith said.

She said they want to make sure the CRIS routes and DMT routes are not overlapping but are complementing each other.

There's some potential consolidation between the two agencies.

DMT also is not moving forward with any building changes to its Jackson Street building at this time, with money still waiting for those projects.

DMT has been looking at replacing underground diesel fuel and waste storage tanks at 101 N. Jackson St., acquiring land for administrative/maintenance upgrade and addition; and procuring architectural/engineering services for administrative/maintenance upgrade and addition.

Beith said they will move forward in working on the back lot at Jackson Street and relocating the underground fuel storage tank. The addition and other projects are on hold.

For the rail study grant funding, the city's grant submission on the railroad project stated: "In the City of Danville, train traffic divides the community and causes vehicular backups, slower emergency response times, and fatalities and discourages the use of non-motorized transportation at five at-grade crossings on Bowman Avenue, Main Street and Voorhees Street. To alleviate these quality-of-life challenges, city staff is proposing to determine if either a series of grade separations, railroad relocation and consolidation, or some combination of the two alternatives would be a project that could be funded through large US DOT grant programs that require benefit-cost ratios greater than 1.0. This project will complete enough data analysis and design to produce the benefit-cost analysis and determine if a given alternative would be more acceptable to stakeholders"

This would involve a report with vehicular delay data from the Trainfo system, conceptual layout for grade separation alternative, conceptual layout for rail consolidation alternative, opinion of probable cost for each alternative, calculation of benefits for each alternative, using the Guidance for Discretionary Grant Programs and a recommendation for which alternative to move forward.

According to City Engineer Sam Cole, "some of the (train delay) sensors equipment will be the same, but we are not proposing notification/reroute of traffic in this study. That is still something that we could do later as a separate project if grade separations are not pursued."

The Illinois Department of Transportation this week announced more than $11.4 million is being invested via 30 grants for local initiatives and activities to support the planning efforts of long-range transportation projects across the state.

"Since day one as governor, I've made it my mission to transform our state's transportation systems — from roads and bridges to railways, buses, and bike paths," said Gov. JB Pritzker in the press release.

Administered by IDOT using $7.3 million in federal funds, with matching funds of $788,000 from the state and $3.3 million from local governments, the grants are designed to advance the objectives of the Illinois Long-Range Transportation Plan.

Among the criteria considered were projects that implement asset-management strategies and performance-based planning and programming, as well as activities that grow and support economically distressed areas.

Applicants included local and state agencies, metropolitan planning organizations and regional planning commissions. Nonprofit entities with public sponsors also were eligible to apply.

"Thanks to Gov. Pritzker's leadership, we are partnering with communities throughout the state to get them the tools they need to reimagine how they want transportation to work for their residents," said Illinois Transportation Secretary Omer Osman. "These efforts would not be possible without concerted planning. (The) grants will get needed resources to the local level to help guide decisions that improve safety, mobility and quality of life in communities and neighborhoods."