Is Illiana a runway to Peotone, Ill., airport?

There are several reasons to support the Illiana Expressway. Some people hate sitting on the Borman Expressway, the notoriously congested interstate labeled a "parking lot" at a public hearing last week.

Many others, understandably, just want jobs. Though the road won't be built for years, supporters say its construction could create paychecks for thousands of unemployed Hoosiers when it finally happens.

But a small group of people, Ed Linden of Lowell among them, suggests all of this comes at a cost if it's not built near the Borman.

"This road isn't going to help Indiana," Linden said Thursday at Crown Point High School. "It's going to help Illinois. I believe it's going to kill our airport in Gary."

That's because it could one day give air travelers easier access to a second option.

We don't know yet where the Illiana would be built. But last year's feasibility study offers three possible routes. Generally, each one offers a clear path from southern Lake County to the vicinity of Peotone, Ill.

That's where Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn says he wants to build Chicago's third airport.

"We will build a third airport in the south suburbs of Chicago, and we will build it as fast as humanly possible," Quinn said last year.

Quinn also supports the Illiana. Ashley Cross, his press secretary, said the Illiana and the Peotone airport are included in a group of Illinois transportation projects designed to work together. Cross also said $100 million is still earmarked for Peotone land purchases in the Illinois Jobs Now plan.

But Indiana Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso and a former United Airlines vice president, says Linden and others shouldn't lose sleep over Peotone.

"I have serious doubts that in your lifetime or mine we'll ever see the Peotone airport," Soliday said.

Putting an airport there doesn't make sense from an aviation perspective, Soliday said, nor does it make sense politically. Not to mention Illinois has its own well-documented financial problems.

"It's the least of my worries in this project," Soliday said.

An Illiana Expressway bill written by Sen. Ed Charbonneau, R-Valparaiso, is poised to finally emerge from the House of Representatives' transportation committee today.

For now, it simply authorizes the state to enter a public/private partnership to build the highway that would connect Interstate 65 with either I-57 or I-55 in Illinois.

The toll road would be built with private dollars, lawmakers say, with Indiana owning the land underneath and accepting money from the developer up front.

All of this could change if the bill is amended, which seems likely to happen. And the right amendment could kill the bill altogether.

Today, though, the bill has several supporters in the Statehouse. Among them is Sen. Earline Rogers, D-Gary, the person most likely to be concerned about the highway's collateral damage to one of Gary's most valuable assets.

Rogers is third author of the Illiana bill. She said she doesn't expect the Peotone airport will be built, either. And rather than killing the Gary/Chicago International Airport, Rogers said officials at the Indiana Department of Transportation think the Illiana will help it.

That's because people living in Illinois' Will County will have an easier time driving to Gary.

"I think it will enhance the Gary airport by an additional population being closer to an airport than they would be to O'Hare," Rogers said.

Finally, Gary Airport Director Chris Curry points out his facility has one advantage over the one in Peotone: The Gary airport exists.

"If the (Peotone) airport is not built, then of course, there's no impact at all to the Gary airport," Curry said. "You know, if the airport was built or showing signs of being built, then I guess it really depends on where we were as an airport."

The runway expansion at Curry's airport should be complete by the time the Illiana is built. Perhaps that will help the Gary airport finally take off, leaving any thoughts of competition from Peotone far behind.