Hevens-2-Betsy

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It will a toll road and it will most likely be leased to a foreign concern. Privitization of our nations roadways is a bad deal, and there are a number of reasons to say NO to public-private partnerships.... and therefore yet another reason for saying NO to building the ILLIANA.

* Privitization fragments our national highway system.
* Privitization is a way to outsource difficult decisions, like raising tolls, to entities that don't have to worry about being RE-ELECTED.
* Privitization straps citizens with paying tolls, most likely to foreign landlords for years to come.
* Privitization solidifies the private operator's loyalty to his stockholders and NOT to the public transportation system or the people using the roadway.

Isn't it nice to know that you could soon be paying Wall Street investors, and foreign bankers for the privilege of driving on yet another American roadway. This is the new fleecing of America.

Unneeded - Unwanted - Simply a Throughfare to Illinois at Indiana's expense.

December 16, 2012 6:03 pm on Illiana Expressway route will get feds' stamp of approval
It appears that Don Parker threw the Town of Lowell under the bus. I was unaware that Lowell’s Town Council is in favor of building the Illiana, due to the many irreversible problems (finance-related, ownership-related, and environmental-related) that will be created for the town of Lowell and its townships. So I was very surprised that Don feels it will be a “huge benefit for our community”. Yeah, right….

Unwanted
Unneeded
And a Big Waste of Money

December 14, 2012 10:55 am on Illiana Expressway route will get feds' stamp of approval
What an interesting article.... Wasn't State Senator Toi Hutchinson the politician responsible for pushing the "Quick-Take" bill for the proposed Illiana Tollway? I didn't see any reference of this in this article.

Do you think she is genuinely concerned about the landowners, or could it be she’s concerned about votes? Gee, I wonder which it is?????

November 04, 2012 1:46 pm on Hutchinson wants ombudsman for property owners affected by Illiana Expressway
The politicians, INDOT, IDOT, and the Corridor Study Group can try to spin it any way they want. They claim the ILLIANA will promote jobs, will promote business growth, and will also solve truck traffic congestion problems. Yeah, right! The ILLIANA is all about the almighty dollar. It is not needed, and it is unwanted. After the last Indiana and Illinois Corridor Study Public Forums, public record showed that 58% of the responses were negative about going forward with the ILLIANA.

If the ILLIANA gets federal approval, INDOT and IDOT, will begin bulling people in the B3 footprint to sell their homes, land, and farmland in a deflated housing market. The intent is to purchase it now, even if construction of the ILLIANA doesn’t begin anytime soon. This is called “land banking”. The state (Illinois is broke) will purchase the land required to build a “privatized” tollway, most likely managed and operated by a foreign consortium. Only in America.

Also, very ironic and timely that the newly proposed NIRPC (Northwest Indiana Regional Planning Commission) executive director, Tyson Warner, was a former Will County planning director. Mayor McDermott commented that there were two “high-quality” candidates from Northwest Indiana that he would favor. Could this be more under-the-table politics to help grease the wheels for the ILLIANA and the PEOTONE Airport?

October 24, 2012 3:54 pm on Illiana Expressway route awaits federal OK
The roadway will definitely be a tollway (privitized)... That's the only way it can be built...

Trucks drivers will not pay the tolls and will continue to use Route 10, the old Route 2, or whatever way they can to get to Route 1/I-394. (How much truck traffic is there on the Indiana Tollway????)

Again, why build it.... It serves NO benefit to Indiana... Unneeded and unwanted...

August 31, 2012 11:21 pm on EDITORIAL: Keep Illiana Expressway plans on fast track
I wish that the NWI TImes would stop referring to the Illiana as an Expressway.... Everyone knows that the only way it can be built is to privitize it. One of the biggest arguments for building the Illiana was to alleviate traffic flow on the Borman and Route 30. It was stated at the first Crown Point High School public hearing that it will only improve traffic on the Borman by 2%, and only 1% on Route 30. So why build it??? Also, this editorial states that it will relieve the traffic flow on the Indiana Toll Road. I thought the Indiana Toll Road lost money last year? So why build another Toll Road???

I agree with J Bird... It's unneeded, unwanted, and will only benefit Illinois' existing and proposed business facilities. The Indiana-side of the Illiana will serve as a bypass and a bypass does not equate to economic growth.

August 19, 2012 9:34 pm on EDITORIAL: Keep Illiana Expressway plans on fast track