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Bluffton’s Interurban Trail, which will run from the Wabash River north to the intersection of Monroe Street/Wells County Road 200N, is apparently good to go.

The project, a 1.8-mile pedestrian/bike pathway, which will run along the west side of Main Street/Ind. 1, received a bid of $1,646,617.09 from Primco Inc. of Fort Wayne Wednesday. The Indiana Department of Transportation’s engineer’s estimate was $1,660,000. Since the bid was less than the engineer’s estimate — something that was not the case the first two times the project went out for bids — it appears that approval will be at hand.

While the bid isn’t expected to be formally approved for 30 to 45 days, it would seem that the pathway — more than two decades in the planning stages — will be built this spring and summer.

Bluffton Mayor Ted Ellis was not optimistic prior to Wednesday’s third bid letting on the trail. “If you had asked me, I would have bet that it would be three strikes,” he said.

Instead, the third time was a charm. Ellis said Wednesday afternoon that his office was “the happiest place on earth.”

The project is a federal aid project, which means the federal government provides 80 percent of the money and the city provides 20 percent. Most of the city’s share of the cost came from the acquisition of rights-of-way along the path and such things as moving fire hydrants and utility poles.

Last July, E&B Paving of Huntington bid $1.7 million and the engineer’s estimate was $1.3 million, the bid was turned down. The project was reworked, taking out some amenities (among them: benches, trash bins, and pavement markings), and it was put out for bids again in January. The engineer’s estimate was again $1.3 million and the only bid received, from Primco, came in at $1.6 million.

Approval was possible if the bid price was no more than 15 percent over the engineer’s estimate, but that not was the case in either July of 2015 or January of 2016.

This time, the engineer’s estimate rose to where the bids had been. Primco submitted a bid that was $13,383 under that.

Toby Steffen of the Indianapolis-based engineering firm of Butler, Fairman, Seufert, who serves as the city’s consultant on transportation matters, said his “gut feeling” was that the time frame for construction would be five to six months. He said it would be best if the construction started from the south and went north to ease congestion during what he called the “hustle and bustle” of the Bluffton Free Street Fair the third week of September.

“We have been told by various people that this is probably a one-season project,” Ellis said.

Ellis is immediately turning his attention to the next stage of the trail — from Monroe Street to Lancaster Park. The park is on Jackson Street/Wells County Road 300N, across from Lancaster Central Elementary School.

That pathway would run on the east side of Ind. 1. After crossing Main Street at the intersection of Monroe and Main streets, the trail would continue about 1.4 miles north and east to the park, which is just east of the intersection of Jackson and Main streets.

“We’re looking at the possibility of doing it without it being a federal aid project,” Ellis said, so the city would be able to bypass the requirements that slowed the project for so long. Private funds would be solicited for the next stage of the trail, and it is possible that Regional Cities money could be sought for it as well.

There is a master plan to link Ouabache State Park to Pokagon State Park in Steuben County with a trail system that would run through northeast Indiana. The Bluffton Rivergreenway, which runs from the state park to Ind. 1, and the Interurban Trail and the extension to Lancaster Park, will be about 9.5 miles of pathway. The distance between the two state parks is about 90 miles.

Article by Dave Schultz, Courtesy of the News-Banner