Economic Alliance Hails

Illiana Recommendation

Preferred B3 alignment benefits Kankakee County

The Illiana Corridor committee - the organization tasked with planning a highway that would connect Interstate 65 in Indiana to Interstate 55 near Joliet - made its preliminary recommendation February 8 of a preferred route. The 47-mile "B3" route selected from eight initial prospects would run about two miles north of the Kankakee and Will County line, according to Mike Lammey, Kankakee County's transportation planner.

"This is a huge step. This is groundbreaking," Economic Alliance CEO Mike Van Mill told The Daily Journal last week. "To have it this close to our boundary is a great benefit."

Van Mill calls the route a major driver for regional development.

The Illiana Expressway is conceived as a bypass for trucks around the congested metropolitan highways, providing access to one of the nation's largest inland port/intermodal freight areas in Elwood as well as the proposed South Suburban Airport.

The Economic Alliance rallied support for the project locally in 2010, successfully generating resolutions of support from all Kankakee County municipalities, in addition to the Kankakee Regional Chamber of Commerce.

According to the IC committee, the proposed expressway, connecting I-65 between Cedar Lake and Lowell, Indiana, to I-55 at Route 129 near Wilmington and just south of Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, offers the best balance of performance - best financial viability, least environmental impact, greatest local support, highest multipurpose corridor compatibility and lowest risk.

The next public meetings are scheduled for February 22 in Crown Point and February 23 in Matteson.

For more information on the Illiana Expressway project, visit http://www.illianacorridor.org/