•October 3, 2018•

By Jim Nowlan
NP Guest Columnist

Transportation infrastructure is our crown jewel, sparkling atop the lid on Illinois’ economic development toolkit. Neglect the jewel, and it might just slip off. And we are neglecting it.
Illinois has more miles—2,200—of interstate highways than all states but Texas and California. Just look at a highway map. The density of interstates crisscrossing Illinois stands out, in stark contrast to the road systems of our neighbors.
The interstates and 12,000 miles of federal and state two-lane highways in our state make it efficient for you and me to get around. More important, the ribbons of concrete move the goods we produce to a big swath of the nation, in just a day.
Add the following: The nation’s seven major railroads all flow into and out of metro-Chicago, and several go into the metro-St. Louis region; East and West Coast railroads come together in these cities. The president of the Union Pacific Railroad recently observed that 25 percent of all rail cargo in the nation originates, terminates and passes through Chicago.
A recent study by MIT found O’Hare Airport to have the best domestic as well as international connections of any airport in the nation!     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.