MICHIGAN CITY | The
Michigan City Economic Development Corp. is supporting
Senate Bill 1, which it says provides for a feasibility study of construction and financing for the proposed
Illiana Expressway.
The bill provides funding for a feasibility study of construction, as well as financing for the proposed Illiana Expressway, said John Regetz, executive director of the corporation.
"If the studies come back unacceptable to the governor's office, (Gov. Mitch Daniels) wouldn't accept it," Regetz said Friday. "The bill studies it and gives the governor's office a chance to get proposals. It also gives the governor's office the ability to execute those proposals."
The development corporation doesn't accept the expressway's opponents' premise that the bill would give a "green light" to the Illiana.
"It still has to be designed and there has to be a feasibility study," Regetz said. "There are several parts to it, They're determining costs and what it would look like and what type of public/private partnership would be developed."
That partnership would establish a privately owned toll system, the MCEDC said in a prepared release.
"We want to see the issue examined," Regetz said. "We support the bill and emphasis the fact that there is legislative oversight."
The expressway would help fulfill LaPorte County's potential for the logistics and manufacturing industrial sectors, the commission said in the release.
The group also said in the release the Illiana would create an uncongested route to Chicago and the western markets, reduce traffic on all the interstates going west and make it feasible to reach those markets from LaPorte County. The group also claims the expressway would make LaPorte County logistics sites attractive to companies that need freight hubs serving Chicago.
"If LaPorte County is to develop industries such as warehousing, distribution and intermodal transfer, then our highway network must support trucking systems that are the final link to supplying the Chicago market," according to the organization's Chairman Tom Edwards.