The Fort to Port Highway 24 project is nearing completion.
Local business leaders say they are excited.
The highway will connect Fort Wayne to Toledo with four lanes.
It will be safer, and it should ease congestion.
InDOT officials say they'll finish the last phase this fall.
They say at least half the current traffic on Old 24 is semi-trucks.
Business leaders say that increasing from two-to-four lanes can get their loads to the port quicker and safer.
InDOT is entering its final phase of the Fort to Port project.
Officials call U.S. Highway 24 an interstate-quality route all the way from Fort Wayne to Toledo.
"We are on the final phase, we have some paving yet to do, there's some seeding and sodding, signage, fence to be put up, pavement markings," says InDOT Media Officer Mary Foster.
The highway expands from two to four lanes.
Greater Fort Wayne Chamber of Commerce President Mike Landrum says the expansion and increased safety is a plus for the region.
"You can imagine with trucks coming to big companies like B.F. Goodrich, to name one significant employer on that existing route," Landrum says.
All that's left in Indiana is the stretch from State Route 101 to the Interstate 469 intersection, plus about twenty miles near Toledo.
Landrum says a straight-shot connection to Lake Erie is vitally important for northeast Indiana.
"It's going to be very significant because, what a lot of people don't realize is that a lot of commerce is done via the ports. Whether the ports up there in the northwest corner, or if you go to the other side with the rivers and Lake Michigan, and in the southern part with the Ohio River," Landrum says.
InDOT expects to finish this fall-- no date is determined yet.
Landrum says for local businesses, it can't come soon enough.
When the project is finally completed, it'll have been four years since it all started at the Ohio state line.
InDOT officials say it cost about $70 million
Local business leaders say they are excited.
The highway will connect Fort Wayne to Toledo with four lanes.
It will be safer, and it should ease congestion.
InDOT officials say they'll finish the last phase this fall.
They say at least half the current traffic on Old 24 is semi-trucks.
Business leaders say that increasing from two-to-four lanes can get their loads to the port quicker and safer.
InDOT is entering its final phase of the Fort to Port project.
Officials call U.S. Highway 24 an interstate-quality route all the way from Fort Wayne to Toledo.
"We are on the final phase, we have some paving yet to do, there's some seeding and sodding, signage, fence to be put up, pavement markings," says InDOT Media Officer Mary Foster.
The highway expands from two to four lanes.
Greater Fort Wayne Chamber of Commerce President Mike Landrum says the expansion and increased safety is a plus for the region.
"You can imagine with trucks coming to big companies like B.F. Goodrich, to name one significant employer on that existing route," Landrum says.
All that's left in Indiana is the stretch from State Route 101 to the Interstate 469 intersection, plus about twenty miles near Toledo.
Landrum says a straight-shot connection to Lake Erie is vitally important for northeast Indiana.
"It's going to be very significant because, what a lot of people don't realize is that a lot of commerce is done via the ports. Whether the ports up there in the northwest corner, or if you go to the other side with the rivers and Lake Michigan, and in the southern part with the Ohio River," Landrum says.
InDOT expects to finish this fall-- no date is determined yet.
Landrum says for local businesses, it can't come soon enough.
When the project is finally completed, it'll have been four years since it all started at the Ohio state line.
InDOT officials say it cost about $70 million
