Illiana Expressway: Bad Idea for Local Residents
03 February 2007 09:55 AM | Indiana, NW Indiana and Porter
County
The Illiana Expressway (good map
and article at that link) is to be a privately
managed toll road designed to act as a third
major expressway to allow East-West through
traffic to get around the southern tip of Lake
Michigan. The Illiana Expressway is touted, by
Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels as an economic
boon to the rural parts of the Indiana counties
it will run through. I have a lot of
reservations about this toll road as it has been
described and some things need clarification
before I can support such an expensive new
highway:
1.) Privately Managed Toll Road: I actually have no objection to this being a toll road. In fact user fee supported infrastructure is a good thing in my opinion. What I object to is the "privately managed" part. Something like a 75 year lease is effectively giving away ownership and control of a public highway and right-of-way for nearly 3 human generations. Sorry that is excessive. Second, I'm willing to bet that any private company will start deferring maintenance on this road for the last 10 - 15 years of the lease. In effect they will hand back to the people of Indiana a worthless hunk of crumbling concrete. If the Illiana Expressway is such a good idea then the State of Indiana should own it and operate it.
2.) Tollways Exclude Local Traffic: As a toll road, the Illaina Expressway will not be used by local people for local travel - mainly because of the cost of tolls but also because of the limited number of interchanges. Sure local people will use it perhaps for daily commute to Chicago and maybe to go to the next county - but lets face it - this Illiana Expressway is being built for semi-trucks and people driving around Lake Michigan. Honestly, it ain't for us locals - it's for the trucking industry to save time and money, yet we locals will be expected to provide police, fire and ambulance coverage on this privately managed toll-road.
3.) I like the Intermodel Aspect ... But ...: I like the idea that the highway could serve intermodal (train to truck) yards.
Source: Chesterton Tribune
Talk is cheap and I hear a lot of grandiose plans but I'd like to see that the intermodal yards are a sure thing in writing and budgeted to be built along with the road. Otherwise, we'll build the road for the trucking industry and the intermodal stuff will never get built and all the truckers will have their own private road. In these days of global warming we should be insuring that more freight will travel by rail than by truck. Full stop.
4.) Sprawl and Underfunded Public Transportation: Roads beget sprawl. I hate sprawl. Sprawl brings more automobiles and more pollution. The Illiana Expressway toll road will surely bring more sprawl, although it will be slower growth than if it were a freeway. In addition Northwest Indiana has a commuter rail plan to expand the South Shore rail road. That really will help the local residents. But nobody has any idea how that very expensive project will be funded. On top of that the Northwest Indiana region is only just now starting a regional bus service, and again nobody knows how we will find funds to do that right. Here is my simple proposal - No Illiana Expressway until all the South Shore and bus service gets complete funding from the Federal, state and local governments. Build the South Shore to Valparaiso and Lowell and we'll talk about shiny new highways.
5.) Bad Route: The current proposed route runs through some of the best farmland left in Lake and Porter Counties. Destroying good farmland just so a bunch of trucks can spew smoke and noise in our quiet communities is not a good thing. Route the darn road through the worst farmland.
6.) Relief of Truck Traffic on I-94: I am not convinced that this tollway would actually prevent trucks from using I-94. Trucks still resist using the Indiana Toll Road which runs nearly parallel to I-94 right now so I doubt that this route will provide that much relief.
Summary: I think we need to go slowly on the Illiana Expressway. The Illiana should only be built as part of a comprehensive plan that includes planning and funds for 1.) Interurban and commuter trains; 2.) Regional bus lines; 3.) Intermodal switching yards; 4.) study of the best use of land, route and location of interchanges.
1.) Privately Managed Toll Road: I actually have no objection to this being a toll road. In fact user fee supported infrastructure is a good thing in my opinion. What I object to is the "privately managed" part. Something like a 75 year lease is effectively giving away ownership and control of a public highway and right-of-way for nearly 3 human generations. Sorry that is excessive. Second, I'm willing to bet that any private company will start deferring maintenance on this road for the last 10 - 15 years of the lease. In effect they will hand back to the people of Indiana a worthless hunk of crumbling concrete. If the Illiana Expressway is such a good idea then the State of Indiana should own it and operate it.
2.) Tollways Exclude Local Traffic: As a toll road, the Illaina Expressway will not be used by local people for local travel - mainly because of the cost of tolls but also because of the limited number of interchanges. Sure local people will use it perhaps for daily commute to Chicago and maybe to go to the next county - but lets face it - this Illiana Expressway is being built for semi-trucks and people driving around Lake Michigan. Honestly, it ain't for us locals - it's for the trucking industry to save time and money, yet we locals will be expected to provide police, fire and ambulance coverage on this privately managed toll-road.
3.) I like the Intermodel Aspect ... But ...: I like the idea that the highway could serve intermodal (train to truck) yards.
An intermodal facility is a large-scale center, usually of 2,000 or so acres, where cargo is transferred from one mode of transportation to another, such as from rail to truck. A handout released at a recent meeting of the Porter County Economic Development Alliance suggests three intermodal sites in LaPorte County at Union Mills, Kingsbury and at State Road 2.
Source: Chesterton Tribune
Talk is cheap and I hear a lot of grandiose plans but I'd like to see that the intermodal yards are a sure thing in writing and budgeted to be built along with the road. Otherwise, we'll build the road for the trucking industry and the intermodal stuff will never get built and all the truckers will have their own private road. In these days of global warming we should be insuring that more freight will travel by rail than by truck. Full stop.
4.) Sprawl and Underfunded Public Transportation: Roads beget sprawl. I hate sprawl. Sprawl brings more automobiles and more pollution. The Illiana Expressway toll road will surely bring more sprawl, although it will be slower growth than if it were a freeway. In addition Northwest Indiana has a commuter rail plan to expand the South Shore rail road. That really will help the local residents. But nobody has any idea how that very expensive project will be funded. On top of that the Northwest Indiana region is only just now starting a regional bus service, and again nobody knows how we will find funds to do that right. Here is my simple proposal - No Illiana Expressway until all the South Shore and bus service gets complete funding from the Federal, state and local governments. Build the South Shore to Valparaiso and Lowell and we'll talk about shiny new highways.
5.) Bad Route: The current proposed route runs through some of the best farmland left in Lake and Porter Counties. Destroying good farmland just so a bunch of trucks can spew smoke and noise in our quiet communities is not a good thing. Route the darn road through the worst farmland.
6.) Relief of Truck Traffic on I-94: I am not convinced that this tollway would actually prevent trucks from using I-94. Trucks still resist using the Indiana Toll Road which runs nearly parallel to I-94 right now so I doubt that this route will provide that much relief.
Summary: I think we need to go slowly on the Illiana Expressway. The Illiana should only be built as part of a comprehensive plan that includes planning and funds for 1.) Interurban and commuter trains; 2.) Regional bus lines; 3.) Intermodal switching yards; 4.) study of the best use of land, route and location of interchanges.
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