Trains, trolleys, trails among the projects city commissioners considering for grant funding

It will be trains versus trolleys at Lawrence City Hall tonight. Well, sort of.

City commissioners at their meeting tonight are being asked to select three transportation projects to submit as grant applications for state funding.

Topping the list is a familiar project — renovation of the Santa Fe Depot in East Lawrence. City Hall staff members are proposing the city apply for a $1.5 million transportation enhancement grant to make necessary improvements to the station at Seventh and New Jersey streets.

But staff members also have brought up the idea of a different use for those funds — a brick street restoration in the 600 and 700 blocks of Indiana Street.

This project has a unique twist to it: Trolley tracks. In 1909 the Lawrence Light & Railway Company opened a new trolley route called Route 3, which also was dubbed “Indiana Run” because it went from Eighth and Massachusetts to Indiana Street to Fourth Street and then back.

Those trolley tracks still exist under the current asphalt pavement of the street, and they are starting to create some surface problems. The city is proposing to apply for a $660,000 transportation enhancement grant that would allow the street to be restored to its original brick street format, complete with stone curbs. And, at the moment, the city is proposing to put in new railroad ties and reinstall the original trolley rails down the middle of the street.

There’s no plan for a trolley service in the works, but the grant category is for transportation projects with a historic element. The trolley tracks fit the bill.

The state has limited funding for the grant program, and so city staff members are recommending the Santa Fe Depot project be submitted as the city’s No. 1 priority in the category. The city, however, has sought grants before to restore the 1950s-era depot, but been unsuccessful. That is in part because the city doesn’t yet own the building.

City commissioners have been reluctant to execute a low cost purchase of the station from Burlington Northern Santa Fe because it doesn’t want to be obligated to make the significant repairs needed. They rather would have a grant to help with that, but grant agencies have been reluctant to award money for a building the city does not yet own. So, we’ll likely go through the chicken-or-the-egg routine again tonight at City Hall. And we’ll discuss trains and trolleys.

Commissioners also are being asked to choose transportation projects for two other grant categories. Those choices are:

• $57,500 to restore the old stone monuments that mark the entry into the Breezedale neighborhood at 23rd and Massachusetts streets. The project is in the scenic and environmental category. It is the only project the city is recommending for that category.

• $170,000 to extend the concrete Burroughs Creek Rail Trail from East 23rd Street to East 29th Street. Currently there is an ag lime, gravel path that runs from 23rd Street to 29th Street. The proposal would replace that path with a 10-foot-wide concrete path, matching the new Burroughs Creek Trail, which starts at 23rd Street and runs north to 11th Street. City staff members are recommending this project be the city’s No. 1 priority in the bicycle and pedestrian category.

• $580,000 to build a new path from the proposed Rock Chalk Park north of Sixth and the South Lawrence Trafficway intersection to Queens Road. Eventually, the city would like to have a path that runs all the way from the Rock Chalk site to Kasold Drive. The project is in the pedestrian and bicycle category.

• $240,000 to add bike lanes to the portion of Bob Billings Parkway that runs between Wakarusa Drive and about 45 feet west of Foxfire Road. The existing median would be narrowed to make room for the bike lanes. City officials said now would be the time to add bike lanes to the road because the city plans to resurface the road in 2013. The project is in the pedestrian and bicycle category.

All of the projects would require the city to provide local funding equal to 20 percent of the project’s cost. So, for example, the city would need to come up with about $300,000 in local funding, if it were awarded the Santa Fe Depot grant.

Commissioners meet at 6:35 p.m. tonight at City Hall.