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Illiana Expressway Getting Attention Among Candidates for Illinois Governor
Produced by Michael Puente on Monday, November 16, 2009

Kirk Dillard(Photo by WBEZ/File)

A proposed highway connecting Illinois and Indiana is getting some attention in Illinois gubernatorial race.

Thought up decades ago and still a decade away from perhaps becoming reality, the so-called Illiana Expressway is picking up support in an unlikely place: the race for Illinois governor.

Governor Pat Quinn says he wants to see development of the Illiana. He says he hopes to sit down soon with Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels to talk about moving the project forward.

GOP candidate Kirk Dillard says he too supports the building of the 25 mile east-west highway, which would connect Interstate 57 in Will County to Interstate 65 in southern Lake County, Indiana.

But so far, support for the near $1-billion project on the Indiana side has been lukewarm at best, with some communities opposing construction of it.

Supporters say the highway would ease congestion on the Borman Expressway and spur economic development on both sides of the state line.