LOGANSPORT — Bids for the final leg of the Hoosier Heartland were opened this week, marking a milestone four decades in the making.
The Indiana Department of Transportation opened bids Wednesday for construction of the 4.7-mile-long final leg of the Hoosier Heartland and state officials announced Thursday that the apparent low bidder was Fort Wayne-based Primco Inc., with a bid of $24.7 million. That contract is to build the stretch of road from 325 West to Ind. 29, said Jim Pinkerton, communications director for INDOT.
Pinkerton said the contract would not be finalized or awarded for a couple of weeks.
The new Ind. 25 will be a 31-mile, four-lane, limited access divided highway. The project is divided into four segments between Lafayette and Logansport. Along that stretch of highway, INDOT's consultants are in varying stages of design and construction.
Of the 25 total contracts for the corridor, 11 are complete and 14 are under construction, according to the website for the Hoosier Heartland Industrial Corridor, www.hhicinc.com.
That group, now led by former state Sen. Tom Weatherwax, has been pushing for construction of the highway for decades.
Weatherwax said Thursday he recalled talking to people in the early 1970s about the highway and he was a part of creating the first traffic study in the mid-1980s.
“It’s really emotional,” he said of the final bid letting. “We’re talking thousands of people who worked so hard and unfortunately some of those people are not alive today. Many people jokingly told us, and themselves, and I was one of them, that we never thought we’d live long enough to see this happen.”
A Last Letting Luncheon is scheduled for Monday at Fire Stone Grill in Logansport, and Weatherwax said there are already 125 people planning to attend.
“It’s just amazing how much time and energy has gone into this,” he said. “This is a huge economic development opportunity to put us on a four-lane, interstate-connecting highway, which connects us to I-65 and I-69.”
Weatherwax said it would be nice to have many of the faces who had made this highway a reality together in the same room.
“Monday will be the real celebration for that,” he said. “We’re excited.”