Major moves: ten-year plan for Indiana's transportation system.

• Author: McKimmie, Kathy
• Position: CONSTRUCTION

PEOPLE IN THE BUSINESS of highway transportation and the communities they serve need long memories, tenacious spirits and the patience of Job. Decades frequently go by before a needed road or improvement turns into an approved plan; then, with luck, it's another decade to wait for funding and the start of construction.

Given Indiana's central location, the state's interstate and highway system is often touted as a key economic development tool. But significant upgrades to Indiana's major roads are needed to keep slow-moving and sometimes dangerous stretches from becoming a detriment--not a draw, to new jobs and investment to the state.

Enter Major Moves. In 2005, newly elected Governor Mitch Daniels directed the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) to survey the state's needs for new highway construction and preservation projects over the next decade. It found a nearly $2 billion gap between the state's needs and projected funding. In what to many was a controversial move, but an undeniably bold one, Daniels proposed that the 2006 General Assembly lease the Indiana Toll Road to generate full funding for road construction without raising additional taxes. Passage of the legislation netted the state $3.8 billion in its largest public-private partnership agreement ever. The state's 10-year plan (2006-2015), dubbed Major Moves, totals $12 billion, the bulk of the money coming from traditional federal and state gas taxes.

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The specifics of the 10-year schedule, including hundreds of projects spread over all 92 counties is available on INDOT's Web site. Not everything was set in stone, however. Soon after passage of Major Moves, for instance, Honda announced that it would locate a new manufacturing plant in Greensburg, and the state's ability to be flexible and commit to a new interchange at 1-74/S.R. 421--without the traditional long wait for these projects, was a factor in its decision to bring 1,500 jobs to Indiana.

More recently, the governor announced plans to accelerate the construction of the Hoosier Heartland Highway's final section to begin this fall and finish in 2013, two years ahead of schedule--but more than 25 years after the formation of the Hoosier Heartland Coalition. "All across the state of Indiana projects have been promised for years, if not decades," says Karl Browning, Commissioner of INDOT. "Major Moves is the fulfillment of that promise.

"With Major Moves we have money to build roads when...