Mike Clark / Times Columnist

After years of considerable talk and little action, a consensus seems to be forming about the Illiana Expressway.

Build it as first conceived, from I-57 to I-65.

It is becoming clearer by the day that the towns along the original route, including Beecher in Illinois and Cedar Lake and Crown Point in Indiana, are bullish on the project and the economic development it would spur.

And the Illiana seems finally to be a priority in at least one state capital, with Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels lending his support to the long-in-the-planning road.

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has a few other things on his plate right now, including multiple scandals in his administration. But in Springfield and Washington, momentum is building for the Illiana as well among legislators in both parties.

With the window of opportunity being propped open, it's time for Daniels to admit that his late revise to the Illiana route -- extending it from I-65 to I-94 in LaPorte County -- has no future.

Just as the push for the Illiana in Illinois' Will County and Indiana's Lake County gains traction, the idea of expanding the road east through Porter County seems more and more a nonstarter.

Some Illiana supporters might wonder whether the opponents truly represent a majority of the people in Porter County.

This dust-up is reminiscent of the controversy over the University of Illinois' mascot, Chief Illiniwek. The continuing and unwavering opposition to the chief finally convinced the university to cut its losses. Better, the school figured, to focus attention on the many good things going on across campus instead of a costumed student who dances at basketball games.

As Chief Illiniwek drew the spotlight from the academic achievements of the U of I and its students and research of the world-class faculty, the proposed Porter leg is changing the nature of the Illiana discussion.

Instead of fast-tracking the feasibility study and preserving the corridor for the western leg, time is being spent arguing with the Porter County foes.

Mitch Daniels deserves credit for being the rare Indiana governor who seems at all interested in pushing a project that could benefit the state's red-headed stepchild, otherwise known as the region. But he now needs to admit he made a misstep by tacking on the eastern leg to the original Illiana proposal.

Whether or not the anti-Illiana sentiment represents a majority of the affected residents is irrelevant. What matters is it could threaten to scuttle the Illiana for another generation.

And that would not be in anyone's best interest.

The opinions are those of the columnist. He can be reached at mclark@nwitimes.com.