The Vale Park Road
Extension is possibly going to act as a
traffic reliever to Lincolnway for east-west travel. The air
pollution and "vehicle miles traveled" (VMT) increase forecasted
in the NIRPC model is being touted as negligible. The increase in
VMT may be coming from pulling traffic off neighborhood streets which
aren't counted in the model, to roads that are counted.
On funding the extension, the city of Valparaiso
hasn't taken it out of the NIRPC transportation
program yet, though it got a relatively low rating (only 7 points),
which makes it less likely to be funded by NIRPC considering all the
other proposed projects got way higher scores. The City may be
planning on funding it 100% themselves, at least
for the beginning. The city would only have to fund 20% if it was
funded thru the NIRPC transportation plan. I suppose if the City
is funding 100%, the local taxpayers would have a MUCH greater
stake in the wastage of money for an environmentally negative
project.
Has the Corps of Engineers been
out to the site yet?
Sandy