Is the Illiana Good for Illinois? You Decide!

Illiana Expressway

Is It Good

For Illinois?

You Decide!

The Illiana, a project strongly pushed by Gov. Pat Quinn, would be a 47-mile toll road cutting across southern Will County and linking Interstates 55, 57 and 65 in Indiana.

In a September 10, 2013, Joliet Herald News Article, entitled "Opposition Continues To Mount Against Illiana Expressway," they report: "Will County and Illinois Department of Transportation officials may be facing an uphill battle to get the Illiana Expressway added to a federal funding list. “This is a tough go,” John Greuling, president and CEO of the Will County Center for Economic Development, said Tuesday during a Will County Board Legislative and Policy Committee meeting. During a 30-day period that ended Sept. 3, 965 comments were received. Of those, 169 were in support and 796 were against, according to IDOT officials. Also, the comments included two petitions with a total of 3,798 signatures from people opposing the project.  Last week, a different agency, the Chicago-based Metropolitan Planning Council, came out against the Illiana, saying IDOT’s $1.3 billion cost estimate for the road was “dubious” and it could cost up to $2.9 billion. The higher estimate is “an enormous amount of money for one project, particularly in a severely cash-strapped state,” Metropolitan Planning Council President MarySue Barrett wrote in a letter to The Herald-News and SouthtownStar. One complicating Catch-22 for the Illiana is the fact that IDOT can’t tell CMAP and the MPO how much money a private entity would chip in for the road through a public-private partnership because the project hasn’t been bid yet, Greuling said. As a result, the planning agencies have to assume the state would need to come up with all of the money, and that could hurt the Illiana’s chances of getting on the federal funding list."

In a September 27, 2013, article by the Chicago Tribune, entitled "Planners Give Thumbs Down To Illiana," they report: "The staff of the agency charged with overseeing land use and transportation planning for northeastern Illinois is recommending against the construction of a new toll road connecting interstates in Illinois and Indiana. The proposal for the Illiana Corridor is “broadly incompatible with the overall goals and recommendations” of the region’s long-range master plan, the staff at the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning said in a report issued this morning.  Building the Illiana would “expose the State of Illinois to extensive financial risk”  due to the proposed toll road’s estimated cost and potential financing structure, the report found. The Illinois Department of Transportation estimates that the Illiana would cost $1.25 billion. No state or federal money has been earmarked for the Illiana’s construction, and experts say none is likely.  According to a report, citing four specific issues that should be considered by the CMAP Board and MPO Policy Committee, shows:
1) Financial Risk.  The proposed facility’s estimated cost and potential financing structure expose the State of Illinois to extensive financial risk.  The information provided to justify the project’s financial viability has been incomplete and largely anecdotal.;
2) Contradictory Growth Assumptions.  To estimate performance of the facility, IDOT has used growth projections that are not consistent with GO TO 2040 forecasts, which are based on the need to direct investment toward existing communities.  The IDOT forecasts essentially show what is likely to result if GO TO 2040 is not implemented, with negative impacts on livability, mobility, and natural resources.;
3) Unsubstantiated Economic Development Potential.  The proposed facility’s ability to spur or support economic growth remains unclear because existing nearby development is minimal.  The selected corridor alignment is not located near the existing residential and commercial centers to the north that are necessary for sustained job creation and economic development.;
4) Limited Benefits to Regional Mobility.  The proposed Illiana Corridor achieves negligible impacts on regional transportation performance, making it a lower priority than the planned GO TO 2040 investments that do address the region’s congestion challenges."

FreePressNewspapers.Com Cites The "Advocate Courant Journal Shopper" As It Reports (9/17/13):
"Will County Board Member, Judy Ogalla - District One, said the Illiana will be detrimental and disruptive to agribusiness, change the quality of life in the communities through which it passes and jeopardize emergency response due to road closures.  In addition, the Village of Elwood is so opposed to the Illiana tollway project that it engaged the services of two of the most renowned intermodal experts in the country; Dr. Martin Lipinski, PE, director emeritus of the Intermodal Freight Transportation Institute (IFTI) at the University of Memphis, and Dr. Mihalis Golias, an assistant professor in the civil engineering department at the University of Memphis.  In July, reports village President Bill Offerman, the consultants and IDOT representatives discussed several alarming issues:
• Based on IDOT's exhibits, truck traffic will increase by 40 percent if a Route 53 connection is created. This is in addition to the approximately 20,000 vehicles that already travel through town along the highway each day, Offerman said.
• IDOT's study doesn't take into account the more than 6,000 acres of industrial land shown in the village of Manhattan's comprehensive plan, which will generate more truck traffic.
• The village's consultants said the software used by IDOT's consultants does not accurately model the traffic entering and exiting the proposed Illiana. It is designed to model traffic conditions at a macroscopic level, when software that can model on smaller microscopic levels is more appropriate.
• IDOT figures assume that 30 percent of the traffic generated by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe intermodal is passenger vehicle traffic while 70 percent is truck traffic. According to the railroad, the assumption is off by at least 20 percent. Passenger vehicles make up only 5 percent to 10 percent of the intermodal traffic.
• Traffic figures included truck trips made within the Deer Run Industrial Park, skewing IDOT's study numbers and misrepresenting current traffic flows. Elwood officials have been here before; they accepted the developer's estimates of 700 truck trips per day when the park was being built, and now count over 10 times the number of trucks using the facility daily."

ChiStreetsBlog Reported on 9/5/13:
"To jumpstart construction, taxpayers “will likely need to provide more than two-thirds of Illinois’ share of the capital costs of the Illiana,” according to CMAP’s analysis. If the Illiana gobbles up those public funds, it could jeopardize funding for six other projects in the GO TO 2040 plan, MPC warns. Those six projects are: extending the CTA Red Line to 130th Street; extending IL-53 as a boulevard; constructing the West Loop Transportation Center; building the I-294/I-57 Interchange; taking Elgin-O’Hare Expressway to O’Hare and building West O’Hare Bypass; and now building the Circle Interchange." The ChiStreets article then continued to report on other failed similar construction projects across the nation:


You decide. Will the Illiana be more profitable and more utilized than other similar projects across the nation?  Should we build the Illiana?