A pile of newly poured asphalt sits at the end of the Erie Lackwanna trail crossing on 45th Avenue in Highland. The town had just restriped the trail last week when NIPSCO workers tore it up August 27. (Michelle L. Quinn / Post-Tribune)
The Town of Highland feels like NIPSCO took it for a ride over its plans to work on its gas regulator station this week.
NIPSCO and its subcontractor workers on August 27 started working on expanding its gas regulator station on 45th Street, just west of the Erie Lackawanna Trail, according to an email sent by Project Communication Lead Megan Henning to Highland Building Inspector Ken Mika on August 23. The utility is also working on the Merrillville regulator at 91st Street — also west of the Erie Lackawana trail — a release attached to the email said.
NIPSCO project managers told Highland it was going to do the improvements during a May 13 meeting, Parks and Recreation Director Alex Brown said. What it didn’t say, Brown said, was anything about tearing up the trail.
Had they mentioned it, the town could’ve held off on the $400,000 regrade, repave and repaint project it just finished on the town’s three-mile trail section. Brown just announced at the August 22 Town Council meeting that workers just finished repainting the lines.
So, when Mitch Barloga, active transportation manager for NIRPC, sent Brown pictures of the piled-up asphalt at the trails end on the north side Saturday morning, “surprised” doesn’t cover his reaction.
“(Building Inspector) Ken Mika got the notice from NIPSCO (about closure dates) August 23, but it didn’t say anything about the trail itself getting torn up,” Brown said. “I’m sure they saw the trail was being worked on when they were out there, but no one ever said, ‘You might want to wait on that.’ If it was a matter of waiting 30 days or however long, we would’ve, because they tore up 450 linear feet.
“It’s a good thing we hadn’t installed the solar lighting along the trail yet, because they’d have torn that up, too.”
Barloga, who was out on the trail to take pictures of Highland’s upgrade for social media, said typically, municipalities get the land to install the trails, but utilities such as NIPSCO retain the rights to their equipment and are therefore allowed to do what they need to. He’s never heard of them not fixing something after they’ve completed their work, so he said that he has no reason to think NIPSCO won’t fix Highland’s trail.
“I’m just confused why they didn’t give them the head’s up. They should’ve informed the community,” Barloga said.
Brown said NIPSCO Public Affairs Director Rick Calinski asked him to send along pictures of the damage but hadn’t heard back from him.
Calinski said Thursday that the original plan for the upgrade didn’t encompass the bike path itself, so he understands Highland’s frustration. Once the work is done, NIPSCO will fix everything back to its new condition.
“It’s a privilege to steward improvements such as bike paths, and NIPSCO is a proud partner of them. When we need to do maintenance, it’s never with the intent to tear things up, and we didn’t intend to tear up (the Highland trail). But once the contractors got out there, there was no way to avoid it,” Calinski said. “We’ve since apologized to the town, and once we’re done, we’ll fix everything.”
The station work is expected to wrap up at 7 p.m. Saturday, weather permitting, the NIPSCO release said, reminding trail users to avoid traveling around or over the construction fencing.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.