U.S. Transportation Secretary Elizabeth Dole removed two major obstacles Monday to the long-planned Southwest Side rapid-transit line and also ordered that a contract for federal funding be worked out, according to an aide to U.S. Rep. Dan Rostenkowski (D., Ill.).
According to the aide, the transportation secretary personally delivered a letter to Rostenkowski`s office in which she agreed to eliminate the roadblocks, one of which was a requirement that the city put $50 million in a capital-reserve account to cover cost overruns.
One city official in Chicago said Monday`s development was ”terrific,”
and added: ”It`s real good news. . . . The biggest obstacle to completing the negotiations is out of the way.”
However, Paul Karas, commissioner of the city`s Department of Public Works, was more cautious.
”I`m pleased that a cooperative effort by the mayor, Congressman Rostenkowski and Congressman (William) Lipinski was able to secure this letter agreement,” Karas said. ”But there are still many hurdles to cross, and we will not feel entirely secure until the final contract is signed with the UMTA.”
Lipinski is a Southwest Side Democrat, whose district would benefit from construction of the rapid transit line.
Karas said he thought a contract with the Urban Mass Transportation Administration (UMTA) could be signed in a few months. He said the city`s latest plan calls for groundbreaking for the project in early 1987.
The project should take four years to build once started, Karas said. An aide to Karas said it could take two years longer if federal funds are slowed because of congressional efforts to reduce the nation`s deficit.
The outstanding obstacle to the signing of the contract for federal funding had been a requirement by UMTA, a federal agency under Dole`s jurisdiction, that the cash-strapped city government put up $50 million, equal to 10 percent of the estimated $496 million cost of the project, in a capital- reserve account as a pledge against cost overruns.
In Dole`s letter to Rostenkowski, she said, ”I have been assured that UMTA is willing to proceed on the (contract) without mandating the requirement that a capital reserve account be included.”
Dole added in her letter, ”I have directed (UMTA Administrator Ralph)
Stanley to work with your office, as well as city officials, to finalize contract negotiations.”
Rostenkowski holds one of the most powerful positions in Congress as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.
An aide to Rostenkowski, who asked not to be identified, said Dole`s letter also cleared up a second obstacle concerning how the city would take responsibility for any cost overruns.
On Saturday, an UMTA official said the requirement for the $50 million up front would be dropped if the Chicago City Council passed an ordinance acknowledging responsibility for the cost overruns.
Rostenkowski as well as Lipinski wanted to avoid the necessity of city council action.
”You never know what`s going to happen in the city council chambers,”
Rostenkowski`s aide said Monday. He said he was referring to the political disputes between aldermen aligned with Mayor Harold Washington and the majority bloc of aldermen led by Ald. Edward Vrdolyak (10th).
