Final Contract Awarded for Hoosier Heartland Highway
News Coverage:
Wabash Plain Dealer
Final Contract Awarded for HHIC
By Sheila Rhoades, srhoades@wabashplaindealer.com
Saturday, August 11, 2012, 4:00 am
The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) has awarded the final Major Moves contract needed to complete construction of the Hoosier Heartland Highway between Lafayette and Fort Wayne.
When it is done, Hoosier Heartland Highway will be a four-lane, limited-access, divided highway linking the two cities.
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Bill Konyha, president and CEO of the Economic Development Group (EDG) of Wabash County, is thrilled with the prospect.
“When complete next year, the highway will go from deep water ports in Toledo all the way to Mexico,” he told the Plain Dealer. “It will connect with many major highways so you will be able to go anywhere on one interstate highway system.”
Primco Inc. of Fort Wayne was awarded the $24.7 million contract to build a new section of Ind. 25 between Cass County Road 325W and Ind. 29.
In October 2008, Gov. Mitch Daniels broke ground on 31 miles of new Ind. 25 linking Lafayette with the existing Hoosier Heartland at U.S. 24 in Logansport.
The timeline was accelerated to be completed by the end of 2013 and all along the corridor construction is now in full swing.
“This will allow traffic to bypass Kokomo, Carmel and Westfield on the way to Indianapolis,” Konyha said. “For this part of the state, it’s a game changer.
“If you want to ship to Cleveland, you can take Interstate 80 and pay tolls to Chicago,” he continued, “or you can drop down a smidgeon to U.S. 24 and pay nothing.”
East of Fort Wayne, the highway connects with the U.S. 24 segment currently under construction, known as Fort to Port because it connects with the Lake Erie port city of Toledo.
“This will really open up for our target industries – logistics and distribution,” Konyha said. “If Major Moves did nothing else, it did this.”
Daniels’ Major Moves highway program capitalizes on Indiana’s strategic location as the Crossroads of America by improving and expanding road infrastructure in support of a stronger economy and greater mobility.
For more information on the $415 million Hoosier Heartland Industrial Corridor project, visit www.in.gov/indot/div/projects/sr25study/.
