NORMAL, Ill (WMBD) — Inflation and rising raw material costs could raise the price tag of a decades-old project in the Town of Normal.
According to Normal’s director of engineering and public works, Ryan Otto, town staff are concerned current inflation rates will raise the total price of the underpass project. The underpass project has been in the works for over 10 years and would connect Uptown North (Children’s Discovery Museum) to Uptown South (City Hall Annex).
Otto said due to this, the town is requesting around $6 million more from the federal government in grant money. He said it comes from unused funds from other communities across the country as part of a reallocation process.
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“As we move closer to construction, we just see inflation is higher than originally planned; so we don’t know how much of that we’re going to get or how much might be available because it depends on what others across the country ask for,” Otto said.
The town has already received $13 million in funds from a BUILD grant. Otto said they have yet to bid out the project to contractors.
If the project is higher than anticipated and they don’t get any additional funding then the underpass project would be scaled down to stay within their budget.
