Chicago's "Outer Beltway" Issue

[spuwho]

Jacksonville isn't the only one having public and political issues with an Outer Beltway.  A long planned expressway to connect NW Indiana and NE Illinois has been roundly panned by all the regional planning agencies, but yet politicos keep it alive by overruling these agencies and maintain funding. Now they want it to be a tollway. (sound familiar?)

The Illiana Expressway, meant to spur south suburban development around a planned 3rd Chicago airport (sound familiar?) and divert truck traffic keeps beating the odds and staying alive. Finally the Editorial board of the Chicago Tribune has called them out to stop the madness. Will they listen?

Per Chicago Tribune:

Illiana Expressway is a bad idea
Illiana Expressway is a bad idea on both sides

For the second time, a regional planning body has the chance to spare taxpayers in two states from an expensive and risky venture: a 47-mile toll road through the middle of mostly nowhere, connecting I-55 in southern Will County, Ill., to I-65 in Lake County, Ind.

This time, the vote will take place in Indiana. The Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission board will decide Thursday whether to cross its fingers and move forward with the Illiana Expressway or take the responsible route and vote no.

Illinois already waved it through, casting aside the well-reasoned objections of staffers at the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning. That analysis showed that the road is not needed and, if built, could stick taxpayers with the bill for hundreds of millions of dollars to make up for tolls that aren't generated.

The staff was overruled by a policy committee whose members caved to pre-election pressure from Gov. Pat Quinn, who hypes the Illiana as a jobs bonanza that will pay for itself. CMAP's analysis contradicts both of those claims.

The staff report says the project would require taxpayer subsidies totaling $440 million to $1.1 billion over 35 years. Its effect on traffic congestion would be "negligible," and its promised economic benefits are "unsubstantiated." It's also "broadly incompatible" with the region's long-term planning blueprint. It's a poor use of scarce transportation dollars.

Quinn's Illinois Department of Transportation did not provide numbers to counter the staff report, saying it needs to protect negotiations with potential private partners. But CMAP's staff couldn't make the math work even by assuming the rosiest projections, including low interest rates, hefty toll collections and on-target construction and maintenance costs. Still, the policy committee gave IDOT a pass.

Indiana's planning agency staff declined to make a recommendation for or against the project.

Taxpayers' risk depends on how the deal is structured. Across the country, public-private toll roads built in the 2000s are struggling now because they were based on traffic forecasts that came up short. That left investors wary of deals that depend on toll revenue to recover their costs. Instead, they want their government partners to provide fixed payments, regardless of traffic. That doesn't sound like much of a partnership.

IDOT promises the Illiana won't get built if the numbers can't be made to work. In the meantime, more than $100 million has been approved for planning, engineering and land acquisition. That's not chump change.

The Illiana Expressway is a bad idea on both sides of the state line. It would be nice to see common sense prevail in Indiana. It's in short supply over here.

[spuwho]

I guess I posted a few hours too late. The Northwest Indiana Regional Planning Commission just voted to approve it.  Outer Beltways are not just a NE Florida issue.

NIRPC gives green light to Illiana Expressway



The Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission on Thursday voted in favor of the Illiana Expressway by a 76-20 weighted vote, waving through a massive road building project that could get underway as soon as 2015.

The vote means plans for the expressway can be submitted soon for final federal approvals and a search for private investors can kick into high gear. If the full NIRPC board had voted against the expressway, it would have stopped the project in its tracks.

"This was a difficult decision in the face of a lot of public opposition," said Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson immediately after the vote. "I am sensitive to the citizens of Lowell who will lose their property. But we really have to think of the greater good."

The full NIRPC board made its decision by weighted vote, where each community's representative was assigned his or her share of 100 total votes based on his or her community's population. The unweighted tally was 29-8 in favor.

A crowd of about 300 packed the Sycamore Room at Woodland Park for the meeting.

Underlining the historic significance of the vote, Gov. Mike Pence issued a statement in the afternoon praising NIRPC for its action.

"I believe roads mean jobs, and today's vote on the Illiana Corridor Project brings us one step closer to more jobs for northwestern Indiana," Pence stated.

The NIRPC board took the day's central vote on the Illiana Expressway about 11:30 a.m., 2 1/2 hours after the meeting's start. That vote was taken on a motion to include the Illiana Expressway and widening of Interstate 65 from U.S. 231 to U.S. 30 in NIRPC's 2040 Comprehensive Regional Plan. Two other votes on the expressway yielded similar results.

The high stakes of Thursday's vote were made clear when INDOT Northwest Indiana Chief Bob Alderman, a nonvoting board member, made a long and impassioned plea for members to approve the expressway.

He reiterated all the arguments in favor of the Illiana Expressway but focused his most passionate argument on safety. He said maintaining the new expressway will make the Borman Expressway and other roads safer. He even recalled for his listeners the August Interstate 65 crash near DeMotte that killed four children and three adults.

"Are you comfortable with your friends and families and constituents traveling on those highways today?" Alderman asked near the end of his plea. "When you walk away from here today, do you feel you've done the right thing?"

Lowell Councilman Craig Earley countered Alderman's argument.

"They are talking about running thousands of semis down this toll road (Illiana Expressway)," Earley said. "So what makes this toll road safer than yours? There will be accidents."

Lake County Councilwoman Christine Cid said if state officials were truly concerned with safety on congested roads, they would have rebuilt the Cline Avenue Bridge. Its closure has driven trucks onto East Chicago streets, endangering children and hurting businesses, Cid said.

The Illiana Expressway would run 47 miles from I-65, in Indiana, to Interstate 55, in Illinois. It would cost $1.3 billion to build, with state transportation officials hoping to raise some of that money from private investors.

Freeman-Wilson, who never declared how she would vote before Thursday's meeting, tipped her hand with the morning's first vote in favor of an air quality report on the expressway. When she finally spoke before the day's central vote, she said Gary's interests were aligned with the region's and that is why she supported the expressway.

Opponents called for the weighted vote. In hindsight, the better strategy may have been to allow a straight roll call vote to proceed. A roll call vote at NIRPC requires a majority of the whole body of 53 for a motion for it to pass. That means the motion to include the Illiana Expressway in NIRPC's 2040 Comprehensive Regional Plan only succeeded by two votes.

Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. made a motion early in the meeting to delay the vote to another day because the NIRPC committee in charge of implementing its 2040 plan had been unable last week to come to a decision for or against it.

"We are taking people's homes with this," McDermott said in pleading for the delay. "We are changing the landscape of South Lake County."

The motion when seconded led to a lengthy discussion. It failed on a voice vote.

In October, the policy committee of the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning voted 11-8 to include the Illiana Expressway in the agency's long- and short-range transportation plans, propelling the Illinois portion of the project forward.

Approval by both NIRPC and CMAP was necessary so that INDOT and IDOT could submit the projects for federal approval.

[thelakelander]

Of course. Roads are a build money making business.  I bet the path of this expressway takes it in the middle of now where, enabling land speculators to cash in on  cheap investments and allowing area road builders to survive until the next big project can be created.

With that said, this highway doesn't really bypass Chicago.  If you're going to use this, it would appear your trip wasn't going to take you into Chicago either way. It's more like a Gary bypass for those traveling from southern parts of the Illinois to Indiana and points east. This probably sucks big time for Gary. They could use all the traffic and commercial exposure they can get.

[SightseerLounge]

Another highway! Lakelander put it into perspective: There is a lot of money to be made off of this project!