Elevated Indiana Toll Road getting $250 million fix in Lake County

BY KEITH BENMAN, Times of Northwest Indiana
kbenman@nwitimes.com

GARY | A $250 million Indiana Toll Road construction project under way since last year moved Tuesday to what is arguably the 156-mile roadway's most critical stretch.

Tuesday morning, work began on adding lanes to the elevated portion of the Toll Road just north of downtown Gary, which is famous for its large potholes and chunks of roadway falling onto the ground below.

"It is the biggest structure on the Indiana Toll Road and in its busiest area," said Indiana Toll Road Concession Co. spokesman Matthew Pierce. "So it's possibly one of the most labor-intensive projects you could undertake on the entire length of the road."

The Toll Road entrance from Broadway to the eastbound lanes is closed for the next four months to allow construction to proceed on the 1,700-foot elevated section. There also will be lane restrictions and lane shifting during the project.

The Buchanan Street entrances to the Toll Road have been closed since February as part of the same project.

The overall project, which began in April 2007, will add one eastbound and one westbound lane from mile marker 20 in Lake Station to mile maker 10 in west Gary. The lane addition is complete from mile marker 20 to mile marker 18.

The entire project is scheduled to be completed by December 2010.

Indiana Toll Road Contractors LLC has the overall construction contract for the work. That company is comprised of Ferrovial Agroman Indiana LLC, of Chesterton, and Rieth-Riley Construction Co., of Goshen.

The elevated section in Gary had so many potholes last winter that Indiana Toll Road Concession Co. undertook emergency repairs, milling up old pavement and laying down new. It had planned on having that work done at the same time as the lane addition.

Those lanes still will be rebuilt as part of the project, Pierce said.

Also included in the lane addition project is the lowering of the Toll Road south of the Gary/Chicago International Airport so the airport can someday lengthen its crosswind runway, Pierce said.

In June 2006, Indiana Toll Road Concession Co. took over operation of the Toll Road under a $3.8 billion, 75-year lease agreement with the state.

Under the terms of the lease agreement, Indiana Toll Road Concession is mandated to undertake $300 million in projects during its first three years of operation.