A $950,000 federal earmark will help Ball State University begin part of the final phase of the McKinley Safety Improvement Project.
The funding was part of the $410 billion omnibus appropriations bill President Barack Obama signed last week.
Jim Lowe, Ball State's director of engineering and operations, said the money would cover the expenses to install storm drains along Riverside Avenue, which is "a phase of phase three" for the project. The university expects all of phase three to cost about $6.4 million, Lowe said.
"It's a portion of what we need," he said. "Certainly, that portion is very welcomed and fits very nicely with what needs to be done."
U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar secured the money for Ball State after he visited the university and decided putting money toward improving safety on McKinley Avenue would be a good cause, Mark Hayes, Indiana press secretary for Lugar, said.
"It seemed like a bona fide project," Hayes said. "It was worthwhile. [Ball State administrators] made their case, so the senator supported it."
Although Lugar opposed the omnibus bill as a whole, Hayes said, the Republican senator still wanted the money for the construction project. Lugar originally pushed to obtain money for the McKinley Avenue project with the Department of Transportation, Housing and Urban Development in 2007, Hayes said.
"He thought the process of the omnibus package just included too many additives or too many additions that weren't necessary for the country right now," Hayes said. "It's serious economic times, and he felt there was too much additional spending."
Lowe said Ball State has been securing money for the project since Congress passed the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century in 1998.
The university completed the first two phases, which cost about $10.68 million, of the safety project in 2006. Ball State awaits more federal funding before it can begin the rest of the project, Lowe said.
The university plans to start the storm drain project late in 2009, he said, and it should take about six weeks. If Ball State receives the rest of the money, the reconstruction would probably be done during a summer like with the previous phases, he said.
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