Borman Flood Shows Illiana Expressway Need
Flooding on the Borman Expressway -- I-80 & I-94 in Northwest Indiana -- shows the need to build an alternate east-west interstate highway through the area. Rising waters from last week's storms led to all lanes being closed on the Borman Expressway, blocking traffic on of the nation's busiest east-west routes.
Writes the Northwest Indiana Times:
Indiana transportation and political leaders said the same thing -- the Borman Expressway flood shows the need to build the Illiana Expressway.
Writes the Northwest Indiana Times' Patrick Guinane:
And, it is foreseeable that accidents, roadwork, heavy snow, or any number of other reasons could block the Borman Expressway.
From the Northwest Indiana Times:
Let's build the Illiana Expressway so that trucks and cars don't have to travel Northwest Indiana city streets to avoid Borman Expressway traffic jams, construction, and floods.
Writes the Northwest Indiana Times:
The Borman flooding, which closed the expressway for days and forced heavy traffic onto local streets, also reinforces the need for alternative highways like the Illiana Expressway.
These additional highways must be quickly engineered and constructed to handle the growing traffic and to provide alternatives when one of the area's main roads must be fully or even partially closed.
Indiana transportation and political leaders said the same thing -- the Borman Expressway flood shows the need to build the Illiana Expressway.
Writes the Northwest Indiana Times' Patrick Guinane:
Had the Illiana Expressway been handling traffic -- instead of gathering drawing-board dust -- local roads could have been spared the deluge of cars diverted last weekend from the waterlogged Borman Expressway, transportation officials said Monday.For naysayers, hoping that transportation problems will solve themselves by halting new road construction is faulty logic. When the Borman Expressway was closed, trucks and cars traveling from New York to California and points in between flowed into Northwest Indiana city streets seeking alternate routes.
And, it is foreseeable that accidents, roadwork, heavy snow, or any number of other reasons could block the Borman Expressway.
From the Northwest Indiana Times:
Andy Dietrick, an Indiana Department of Transportation spokesman, agreed "it would have been helpful to have had another alternate route, such as the Illiana Expressway, onto which east-west through traffic could have been diverted."
It signals why some lawmakers believe talk about the expressway should give way to building it.
"Had it been built 20 to 30 years ago when we first started talking about the idea, then, yeah, we wouldn't have been looking at the problems we had (last weekend)," State Rep. Dan Stevenson, D-Highland, said.
In its current incarnation, the long-stalled highway would connect Interstate 57 in Illinois with Interstate 65 in Lake County. INDOT last week selected Cambridge Systematics, a Massachusetts firm, to conduct the Illiana route study the Legislature mandated this spring.
Let's build the Illiana Expressway so that trucks and cars don't have to travel Northwest Indiana city streets to avoid Borman Expressway traffic jams, construction, and floods.
Copyright 2007, ChristopherHedges.com, All Rights Reserved.
Labels: Borman Expressway, Illiana Expressway, Interstate
posted by Chris Hedges at
6:20 AM
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Plans to Extend The Illiana East Of I-65.
2 Comments:
I suspect there is a little slight of hand going on here with the IN DOT. The Borman is a newly rebuilt highway but _somebody_ didn't engineer it properly to take the water away. Somehow it seems perverse that IN DOT's design failure is now an excuse to build a new one.
The Indiana Tollway should have been made a freeway once the original bonds were paid off like people were promised back when it was built. Too late now Gov. Daniels already screwed that up.
To be fair the Illiana may have to be built, however why does it have to be built as a privatized tollway? Why can't it be a state owned tollway? What is this irrational fetish with privatization downstate anyways?
People would have been a lot more accepting of a highway for the public good if it was to have been publically owned and operated. But once you get private corporations involved it is hard for people to be forced to give up their land, their homes and have them turned over to a private corporation. There is a reason private corporations don't have eminant domain powers, and governments should not act as the pawn of the corporations in a land grab.
So build the Illiana, but build it as a state owned and operated tollway not as a corporate boondoggle.
Hi Brad,
Thanks for stopping by. There does seem to be something strange about having privatized roads and interstate. But, with all of the interest that has been earned by the lease of the Indiana Toll Road, I suspect that most of the coming administrations will probably seek to do the same. It was Mayor Daley who set the trend with his lease of the Chicago Skyway and the subsequent interest that was earned that caught the attention of Indiana's officials.
When it comes to maximizing revenues, the state will always seek to find a way to grab the cash -- even if the cash is front loaded and benefits those around now, instead of future generations. The future generations won't be voting, but those who are around now can be satisfied with various projects in their cities and towns.
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