Indiana Toll Road
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| Indiana Toll Road |
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| Length: | 156.9 mi (252.5 km) | |||
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| Formed: | August 1956 | |||
| West end: |   I-90/Chicago Skyway at the Indiana-Illinois state line. |
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| Major junctions: |
 US 41 near East Chicago   I-65/US 20/12 at Gary   I-80/94/US 6 at Lake Station US 421 near Michigan City US 31 at South Bend US 131 near Middlebury I-69 near Angola |
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| East end: |  I-80/90/Ohio Turnpike at the Indiana-Ohio state line |
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The Indiana Toll Road, officially the Indiana East-West Toll Road, is a tolled highway running east-west across the northernmost part of Indiana. It is a part of the New York-Chicago Toll Road system, and has been advertised as the "Main Street of the Midwest.
To the west, it leads directly to Chicago, Illinois via the Chicago Skyway; to the east it leads toward Toledo, Ohio and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania via the Ohio Turnpike, and Pennsylvania Turnpike.
It is owned by the Indiana Finance Authority and operated by the Indiana Toll Road Concession Company, a Spanish-Australian joint-venture between Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte and Macquarie Infrastructure Group.
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[edit] Route Numbers
The entire Indiana Toll Road is part of the U.S. Interstate Highway System. It provides a direct connection to the Chicago Skyway to the west, and the Ohio Turnpike to the east.
The toll road is signed with the following route numbers:
- Interstate 80. Interstate 80 joins the toll road at the Lake Station exit, number 21, and continues east to the toll road's eastern terminus at the Ohio state line.
- Interstate 90. Interstate 90 runs the entire length of the toll road, joining at the western terminus at the Illinois state line, and continuing east to the Ohio state line.
[edit] Tolls
Between the Westpoint barrier toll, near the Illinois state line, and the Portage barrier at mile post 23, tolls are collected by fixed-amount tolls at exit and entrance ramps.
Between the Portage barrier, east to the Eastpoint barrier toll, near the Ohio state line, it is operated as a closed ticket system toll road, where one receives a ticket upon entering and pays a pre-calculated amount based on distance traveled when exiting. Standard passenger cars are charged a toll of $4.15 along the section from Portage to Eastpoint, with an extra $0.50 at the Westpoint barrier.
Originally the entire toll road was on a closed ticket system, with Westpoint at current Exit 5, roughly under the East 141st Street overpass. This changed after the INDOT takeover in 1981. (see the History section).
[edit] Facts
Exit points are based on the mile-post system, with exits starting at 0 at the Illinois state line, and increasing to exit 153 at the Eastpoint toll barrier near the Ohio state line (technically, not an exit, as the only access from there is to the Ohio Turnpike, but toll tickets issued at the barrier are marked "Entry 153"). The Toll Road opened in 1956 with sequential exit numbering, which was converted to the current mileage-based scheme in 1981. The original number sequence was amended slightly in 1964 with the opening of the then-Burns Harbor, now Lake Station exit.
The furthest it gets from the Michigan state line or Lake Michigan is about 10 miles (15 km).
Although it never enters Michigan, the toll road lies within ten miles (16.1 km) of the Michigan state line between La Porte, Indiana and Toledo, Ohio. Looking north at exit 121, the State Road 9-Howe/LaGrange, the "Welcome to Michigan" sign is visible in the distance. At one point in northern Indiana, the toll road comes within about 200 yards (meters) from the Michigan border[1].
Control cities on guide signs are Chicago and Toledo. Originally they were "Chicago and West" and "Ohio and East".
In December 2006, ITR Concession Company announced that a South Bend student, Andrea Hebster, will receive $5,000 towards her educational expenses for being selected as the grand prizewinner of the Indiana Toll Road logo design contest. The new ITRCC logo rollout is scheduled for the spring of 2007.[2].
[edit] History
The Indiana Toll Road was privately financed and constructed during the 1950s. It opened in stages, east to west, between August and November, 1956[3]. The formal dedication ceremony was held on September 17, 1956.
In addition to the "east-west" toll road, a "north-south" toll road was planned, roughly along the path of today's Interstate 65, but the plan was dropped after the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 was passed.[4]
Originally the Interstate 94 designation was applied to the highway west of where the current interchange with I-94 was eventually built, with I-90 following I-80 to the west along the Borman Expressway as I-94 does now, the completed portions of the Borman being designated as I-80, 90, and 294. The current arrangement was applied around 1965, to avoid confusion, resulting in a stretch of I-94 actually running further south of I-90, and I-90 running the entire length of the Indiana Toll Road. I-294 was cut back to the Tri-State Tollway at that time.
[edit] Ownership
The Indiana Toll Road Commission operated the toll road from its inception until 1981.
The Indiana Department of Transportation operated the toll road between 1981 and 2006.
In 2005, a plan was introduced by Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels to privatize the Toll Road. [5] On January 23, 2006, it was announced that a partnership between Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte SA and Macquarie Infrastructure Group was the top bidder for a 75-year lease to operate and maintain the toll road, offering $3.85 billion (US) for the concession.[6]
The Cintra-Macquarie joint-venture assumed operation of the Toll Road from INDOT on June 30, 2006, after the Indiana Supreme Court dismissed a legal challenge by opponents attempting to derail the deal.
The same partnership already operates and maintains the adjoining Chicago Skyway in Illinois.
[edit] Future Activities
Part of the agreement to privatize operations of the Indiana E-W Toll Road is to implement over $770 million in planned upgrades to the expressway. Included is adding a lane in each direction from the Illinois State Line to the I-80/I-94 interchange (MP 21), the reconstruction of existing pavement and bridge structures, and implementation of electronic toll collection system at all mainline and interchange toll plazas.
[edit] Exit list
| Number | Mile | Destinations | Notes | ||
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| Old | Older | ||||
| 0.0 |   Illinois state line.Becomes the Chicago Skyway. |
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| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | US 12, US 20, US 41. Indianapolis Boulevard. |
Westbound exit and eastbound entrance; other ramps are on the Chicago Skyway. |
| 1 |
 Barrier |
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| 3 |  Indiana State Road 912.Cline Avenue. |
Eastbound exit and westbound entrance. | |||
| 5 | 1 | 1 | 4.7 | US 41. Calumet Avenue/Hammond. |
Former Westpoint barrier toll. |
| 10 | Indiana State Road 912. Cline Avenue/Gary. |
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| 14A | 2 | 1A | 13.5 | Grant Street. | Was once exit 13; Former Gary West exit. |
| 14B |  Indiana State Road 53.Broadway. |
Was once exit 15. | |||
| 17 | 3 | 2 | 16.7 | Interstate 65 US 12, US 20. Indianapolis/Dunes Highway. |
Former Gary East exit |
| 21 | 4 | 20.8 |   Interstate 80, Interstate 94. US 6 (Borman Expressway).Detroit, Michigan/Lake Station/Des Moines, Iowa. |
I-80 joins eastbound, and leaves westbound. Former Burns Harbor exit, opened in 1964. | |
| 22 |
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| 23 | Portage - Willowcreek Road. | ||||
| 24 |
Barrier |
Begin Closed System. | |||
| 31 | 5 | 3 | 30.9 |  Indiana State Road 49.Chesterton/Valparaiso. |
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| 39 | 6 | 4 | 38.9 | US 421. Michigan City/Westville. |
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| 49 | 7 | 5 | 49.2 |  Indiana State Road 39.La Porte. |
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| 56 |
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| 72 | US 31. Niles, Michigan/South Bend/Plymouth. |
Former South Bend West exit, opened in 1980. | |||
| 77 | 8 | 6 | 76.6 |  State Route 933, US 31 BusinessSouth Bend, Notre Dame. |
Former South Bend exit. |
| 83 | Mishawaka, Granger. | Opened in 1982. | |||
| 90 |
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| 92 | 9 | 7 | 91.8 |  Indiana State Road 19.Elkhart. |
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| 96 | County Road 17. Elkhart East |
Opened in 1996 | |||
| 101 |  Indiana State Road 15.Bristol/Goshen. |
Opened in 1983. | |||
| 107 | 10 | 8 | 107.1 | U.S. Route 131 Indiana State Road 13.Middlebury, Indiana; Constantine, Michigan. |
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| 121 | 11 | 9 | 120.5 |  Indiana State Road 9.Howe/LaGrange, Indiana. Sturgis, Michigan. |
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| 126 |
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| 144 | 12 | 10 | 143.9 | Interstate 69. Angola & Fort Wayne, Indiana. Lansing, Michigan. |
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| 146 |
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| 153 | 13 | 11 | 153.0 |
Barrier |
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| 156.9 |   Ohio state line.Becomes the Ohio Turnpike. |
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[edit] External links
- Indiana Toll Road for Sale - Special collection compiled by The Times of Northwest Indiana (Munster), the South Bend Tribune, and the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette.
| Preceded by Illinois |
Interstate 90 Indiana |
Succeeded by Ohio |
