(Above) Mayor Rahm Emanuel (right) and 42nd Ward Alderman Brendan Reilly (center) on the riverfront just west of LaSalle Street on Thursday afternoon. At left is U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood. (Photo by Brooke Collins. Click on images to view larger versions.)

March 29, 2013 – There still is no money quite yet to continue expanding the Chicago Riverwalk, but the city has been invited to apply for a loan from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood was in River North on Thursday to announce the Riverwalk is the first project in the nation to get this far in the process since the DOT started offering special assistance last year. Its Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) program provides direct loans, loan guarantees, and lines of credit to infrastructure projects of regional or national importance.

The city figures it needs $100 million to mostly finish the Riverwalk, past State Street and all the way to Lake Street. Last October, Mayor Emanuel got involved, asking the Chicago Department of Transportation to ask the U.S. Department of Transportation for help from the TIFIA program.

The city has said it will try to find private sponsors to help pay for operating and maintaining the Riverwalk.

So far, so good, says the Transportation Secretary. LaHood says results of an initial review of the project are positive and worth a formal loan application.

“This is exactly the kind of project Congress had in mind when they expanded the TIFIA loan program last year,” said LaHood. “American ingenuity helped to shape this river over a century ago and so it is only fitting that we use American know-how once again to transform the riverfront into a hub of economic activity.”

Designs unveiled on October 8, 2012, show ideas four firms had been working on for at least a year for each of the six blocks from State Street to Lake Street. The span from State to Dearborn, named Marina Plaza (above), would include seating and retail space for restaurants.

LaHood says a final decision on the loan will be announced in June. CDOT has been working on the Chicago Riverwalk since the 1990s when it modified Wacker Drive along the main branch of the river to accommodate a pedestrian walkway.

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• Related story: No funding yet but city has plans to expand Riverwalk past State Street