Construction of the Illiana Toll Road, widening of Interstate 65 in the rural areas and having separate truck and car lanes, and converting U.S. 30 from a four-lane highway to a freeway are among the top priorities listed in a comprehensive, and expensive, plan to grow the logistics industry and economy in Northwest Indiana.
Those three projects alone have an estimated price tag of more than $3.8 billion, officials said at a press conference in Portage.
"This is not a wish list. It's a need list," said David Holt, vice president of operations and business development for Conexus Indiana, the state's manufacturing and logistics initiative.
Work on the Illinana Toll Road, however, is currently stalled. When Bruce Rauner became Illinois governor in January, one of his first orders of business was to freeze the Illiana plan, which has derailed the plan in Indiana until something happens there.
Holt said improving the road, rail, air and water infrastructure would benefit businesses and help with job growth. The road improvements would relieve the bottlenecks that the combined truck and passenger vehicle traffic now create on the two major roads and improve safety, he added.
Holt said the top listed projects would hopefully be done in the next five to 10 years.
Holt was joined by members of the Conexus Indiana Northwest Regional Logistics Council in unveiling the plan at Construction Advancement.
The council, which consists of 32 logistics executives and leaders from 11 counties, worked with Holt on the plan over a two-year period in conjunction with the Northwest Indiana Forum, regional economic groups and chambers of commerce.
"The leaders are trying to build the economy as great as it can be," Holt said.
The plan, called "Advancing Northwest Indiana's Logistics as the Gateway to the World," names 54 infrastructure projects, as well as public policy and workforce development opportunities.
Priorities were determined based on the potential to decrease transportation bottlenecks, increase direct rail service and regional air facilities for freight and improve mode-to-mode connectivity.
Other high priority projects listed include extending the Chicago South Shore & South Bend Railroad tracks to the Ports of Indiana, improving rail track owned by Norfolk Southern Railway at a cost of $71.4 million and extending rail lines into the Kingsbury Industrial Park in Kingsbury at a cost of $27.2 million. No cost was available for the track extension to the ports.
Extending the Gary International Airport runway from 7,000 feet to 8,900 feet was listed as a second tier priority at a cost of $166.2 million.
Holt said the next step would be to take the plan and its three proposals for funding the projects to the Legislature, which has indicated that transportation would be one of its priorities in the upcoming short session
He said allocating all the sales tax on gasoline to the initiative instead of allocating most of that money to the state's general fund would raise about $550 million to $630 million a year alone, while other measures would result in another $30 million a year to help fund the projects.
"We tiered this so the General Assembly could figure out what it could afford," Holt said.
The plan also includes workforce development, with members noting there is a lack of skilled workers in needed areas including truck drivers, boat captains and locomotive engineers.
"I hope to change educators on what they need to do to create career pathways," said Sandy Alvarez, senior associate with Workforce Innovations.