Gary/Chicago International Airport officials are hopeful an agreement on moving railroad tracks blocking airport expansion can be hammered out within a month, perhaps allowing some work on the project to begin this year, the Times of Northwest Indiana reports.

Airport authority lawyer Patrick Lyp told the authority board Sept. 23 that a proposal from Canadian National Railway on moving the tracks could be brought before them for their approval by the end of October.

"We continue to negotiate with the rail lines, and we are doing real well on that, and they are being cooperative," Authority President Nathaniel Williams said.

The airport's expansion plans have been stalled for two years as negotiations over moving the former EJ&E tracks, now owned by CN, have dragged on. Those tracks sit just 130 feet from the northwest end of its main runway. Those negotiations also involve CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern, which both have tracks that cross the Canadian National line north of the airport.

Williams confirmed that negotiations over where to move the tracks now involve only what is known as "option A," a plan that won FAA approval and is eligible for federal funding. Some previous plans to move the tracks carried price tags of more than $50 million. The FAA would pay only about half that cost.