BLOOMINGTON - Cost overruns on collecting public comments on a proposed new highway east of Bloomington-Normal will be paid for with federal money coming to McLean County.

On Tuesday, the County Board unanimously voted to pay the $128,000 in extra costs for the ongoing highway study. The bill will be paid using federal transportation money.

A study on whether a highway is needed to connect interstates 55 and 74 east of Bloomington and Normal and where it should be built began in March 2007. It was originally suppose to cost $1.1 million.

Following a new, state-mandated procedure for collecting public opinion has been more expensive than engineers from Clark Dietz estimated. Clark Dietz is the Champaign-based engineering firm conducting the study.

So far, six public meetings and three meetings of a residents' advisory board have taken place. Additional meetings likely will be held in May or June as work to narrow the list of places for a corridor continues.

Much of the added cost came for the time engineers and others spent at the meetings and then assessing what was said.

The county received $800,000 in federal highway money to conduct the study. The county, the town of Normal and the city of Bloomington added $100,000 each to secure the federal money.

The $128,000 will be paid out of other federal money the county receives.

Bike trail

Also at its meeting, the County Board voted unanimously to apply for $2.4 million in federal grant money to turn the abandoned sections of Old Route 66 near Funks Grove into a bike trail. Total cost of the project is estimated at $3 million.

If the county receives the grant, it would have to come up with the other $600,000, according to the grant application approved by the board.

County Board member Stan Hoselton of Chenoa said that by applying for the grant, the county may have an opportunity to move forward on the project that has been planned since 1999.

Under the proposal, about 7½ miles of new bike trail would connect to Constitution Trail at the southern edge of Bloomington. Constitution Trail is a 24-mile walking and biking trail that winds through Bloomington and Normal.

The proposed trail would follow the 1920s alignment of Route 66. The section connecting Funk Grove is the first part of five that eventually would use the highway to build a bicycle route from McLean to Chenoa.