More road woes, this time it seems it's confusion and hesitation on who will foot the bill. In any case it highlights problems with the whole process.
By WENDY REEVES
Times Staff Writer
[email protected]
Old Madison Pikewidening subjectof finger-pointing
MADISON - State Sen. Tom Butler said federal money for the long-awaited widening of Old Madison Pike may be in jeopardy if the City of Huntsville doesn't sign a funding agreement with the state.
For years, the small stretch of road between Slaughter Road and Indian Creek has been a traffic bottleneck for more than 10,000 motorists who travel it daily.
In 1999, Madison completed a $3 million project to widen Old Madison Pike from two lanes to three between Wall-Triana Highway and Slaughter. Many of the city's residents travel the road to work in Cummings Research Park.
That same year, then-Gov. Don Siegelman said Huntsville had been awarded $2.28 million in federal money to four-lane the road from Slaughter to Indian Creek.
Eight years later, officials are pointing fingers over why the project hasn't been completed.
Huntsville officials say the state won't allocate the federal money needed to widen the road until 2012. The state says Huntsville is dragging its feet.
"I'm concerned we're going to lose the ($2.28 million) federal funding," Butler, D-Madison, said Friday after he received a copy of a letter that State Transportation Director Joe McInnes wrote to Huntsville Mayor Loretta Spencer earlier this month about the project.
In the letter, written in response to a letter he received from Spencer, McInnes asked Spencer to let him know if she doesn't plan to sign the new funding agreement for Old Madison Pike so the money can be redirected to other projects.
Steve Dinges, an assistant director of the Huntsville Planning Department and a liaison to the MPO, said the Old Madison Pike project was moved back because the state doesn't want to allocate the federal money for it until 2012.
Not until 2012
"The state gives the MPO the list of projects it has the funding for and because the state's plan has to be balanced, they say we can't build Old Madison Pike until 2012," Dinges said, explaining why the widening project was moved back on the four-year plan.
But it's more complicated than that.
The Old Madison Pike project was first funded during the Siegelman administration on Nov. 5, 1999.
Federal funding contracts, such as the one for Old Madison Pike, must be reissued every time a new governor takes office if the project hasn't been completed, Dinges said. (this is insane)
Under Siegelman and during Gov. Bob Riley's first term, the state agreed to pay the difference between the $2.28 million in federal funding and actual cost of the project, which has always been projected to cost more than the allotted money, Dinges said.
In the most recent contract under Riley's second term, the City of Huntsville will be responsible for any costs over the federal amount of $2.28 million. The new estimated cost for the plan is $5 million, Dinges said.
"It's no one's fault" the project has taken so long, Dinges said. It took time to design and there were issues with whether to rebuild the bridges in the floodway. The state wanted to build them in the floodway, but the city did not, he said.
McInnes said in his letter that from the beginning, Huntsville "was never in agreement with the scope of the work (the state) proposed."
"I do not feel that we are responsible for the delay in advancement of this project and the corresponding cost escalation. That is why the latest funding agreement assigned the 'overruns' to the City of Huntsville," McInnes said in his letter to Spencer.
Dinges said Spencer is trying to get Riley to go back to the original agreement so the state will pick up the additional cost.
He said it's an unfair option for the city if Riley won't change the agreement.
"We'll just have to decide whether to sign it and if we do, we'll have to decide what other project we can take away $3 million from for this one," Dinges said.
Meanwhile, he said, the city is proceeding as planned. The design work is completed, and right of way should be acquired by the end of the year.
"We're on target with the original plan to build in 2008 if the governor wants to stick to his original plan," Dinges said.
Pike is a city street
Butler said the state has made it clear that since Old Madison Pike is a city street and not a state road, Huntsville should share in the cost.
In the past, the state widened about 1 1/2 miles of Old Madison Pike between Rideout Road, now called Research Park Boulevard, and Indian Creek. The state spent about $5.6 million to widen the city road from two lanes to four.
"This project is way behind schedule, and it's unsafe, and it's an embarrassing eyesore for our world-class Research Park and the new Bridge Street shopping center," Butler said. "It will benefit Huntsville in an unparalleled way because of the new Bridge Street retail development."
But he said the project is important to both Madison and Huntsville now. Many Madison residents travel Old Madison Pike to work in the Research Park.
"But it's increasingly important to Huntsville because of Bridge Street. They could use the sales tax revenue to pay for it, or maybe we need to look at a road TIF."
Huntsville has set up several Tax Increment Finance districts to help pay for improvements surrounding big retail projects and other development. Increases in property tax revenue resulting from improvements in a TIF are used to pay off money borrowed to make the improvements.
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), so don't expect much except a long wait before anything happens. The Church Street overpass is interesting as I'm not familiar as to exactly what that is, unless it is a bridge over the downtown railroad tracks.
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