Intermodal Center project moves forward

Commissioners award contract to Beachwood firm

Lorain County commissioners awarded a contract for more than $1 million for the Intermodal Transportation Center, but work will not begin yet.

EnviroCom Construction Inc. of Beachwood received the $1.1 million contract for the platforms and pedestrian bridge that will be built at the site at 40 East Ave. in Elyria.

It was one of two bids considered by Lorain County Administrator James Cordes.

Cordes said the board is making the award, but without a notice to proceed due to funding negotiations with Norfolk Southern, which owns the rails.

“We still don’t have the Norfolk Southern contract in place,” he told the commissioners.

“We’re down to one point. We’ve been on one point for a while.”

Cordes said the contracts already have been settled with the Federal Transportation Administration and the contract with Amtrak is nearly completed.

Last week, Cordes said the commissioners awarded a contract to the construction manager, but that company has not received a notice to proceed, either.

Speaking to The Morning Journal after the meeting, Cordes and Assistant Lorain County Prosecutor Gerald Innes said the Norfolk Southern contract deals with the county’s ability to build around the rails the company owns.

Cordes said the negotiations are nearly 99 percent done, but there are some provisions the company desires, which they receive in other states, that are prohibited by Ohio state law.

“It’s not so much we’re at odds, as there’s some legal twists in the process,” Innes said.

Cordes said it’s currently a toss-up as to whether the contract will be worked out to meet other deadlines on the project.

“These things are out of our control,” he said. “I’m going to finish up all the things we have to do to keep our funding in place.

“At that point, we’ve done everything we possibly could do to get this project done. And if it doesn’t, then the onus isn’t on us.”

In other news, commissioners authorized the county to take part in the Ohio Department of Transportation’s Cooperative Purchase Program.

“We have the grant money to buy buses,” Cordes said. “Some of our rolling stock is getting long in the fang and the money has been there for a little bit, so I want to get some new rolling stock before we deplete it.”