PORTAGE, Ind. (AP) — Federal approval for the Illiana
Expressway toll road has been delayed by concerns from the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service partly over how the project might impact endangered
species, an Indiana Department of Transportation project manager said.
James
Earl told members of the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning
Commission on Tuesday that federal officials have raised concerns about
how the highway would affect endangered sheepnose mussel and the
threatened long-eared bat, as well as its impact on the Midewin National
Tallgrass Prairie in Illinois.
Environmental groups have been
talking about concerns about the highway since the first draft
environmental impact study was in 2012, Andrew Armstrong, a staff
attorney with the Environmental Law & Policy Center that has filed
two lawsuits trying to stop the highway, told The Times of Munster (http://bit.ly/1nwVWTi ).
"That
we are now this far along in the process and we still don’t have an
opinion on endangered species, that just makes it obvious that this
project has not received the thorough consideration it needs," Armstrong
said.
Earl says the federal record of decision that originally was expected by the end of May is now expected
by September.
The
four-lane highway would run between Interstate 65 near Lowell in
northwest Indiana and I-55 near Wilmington, Illinois, 60 miles south of
Chicago, and be reserved for vehicles using electronic toll devices. It
is expected to cost $1.5 billion.
Earl says the delay in federal
approval also means other delays, including some property acquisitions
and the issuance of a request for proposals soliciting private investors
who want to build and operate the toll road. He says INDOT now
forecasts it will be late summer or fall of next year at the earliest
before construction can start.