Illiana Expressway Report Due Soon

The Illiana Expressway feasibility study is due out shortly, reports Jon Hilkevitch of the Chicago Tribune, who also details the history of the project from the time it was proposed by Daniel Burnham.

Illinois officials are pushing for the Illiana Expressway to be built before land in the area is so developed the roadway will have to be too far south to generate economic benefits for Northwest Indiana and Northeast Illinois.

From Hilkevitch's report:

Later this month, a preliminary financial assessment from Indiana is due out on the feasibility of building a long-discussed Chicago-area bypass highway called the Illiana Expressway. ...

"The primary purpose of ring roads, as Burnham had envisioned, is to take traffic that is going around Chicago and take it around rather than through the city," said Randy Blankenhorn, executive director of the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, a partner in the Illiana project. ...

Meanwhile, the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority is considering forming an exploratory committee to help keep the momentum going on the Illiana project.

Tollway board member James Roolf, who proposed the exploratory committee, said studies should be done to see if it is possible to extend the Illiana farther west to I-55, and also connect it with the proposed Prairie Parkway, a north-south highway corridor in the far western portion of the Chicago region.

Buzzcut writes in Blue County Red State:

I know a lot of people don't want the thing, but as a driver in the Chicago area, I want this thing built to as full extent as possible. I want it to go as far east as possible, go as far west as possible, and intersect as many other highways as possible.