Adding capacity to the Borman Expressway without adding lanes is no easy task, but the Indiana Department of Transportation is working on it.
The Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission’s executive board passed a series of resolutions Thursday aimed at putting a $127 million grant to create a flex road to good use for that purpose on Interstate 94, known as the Borman as it goes through Northwest Indiana.
Adam Parkhouse, director of operations for INDOT’s northwest district, explained what that project could entail as transportation planners aim for “less stop, no go.”
Large gantries could be built across the expressway to alert drivers to lanes closed ahead and urge them to merge now rather than waiting until the last minute. Or speed limits could be adjusted ahead of accidents to get drivers to slow down.
Traffic lights could be installed at the base of on-ramps to tell drivers when it’s safe to merge onto the Borman, a process called ramp metering, just like on some of Chicago’s expressways.
“We have an existing wide inside shoulder” that could be used as an additional lane at times,” Parkhouse said. The display on the gantry would tell when that lane is open or closed.
The idea is to reduce the number and severity of accidents, Parkhouse said.
“It’s the busiest road in the state of Indiana, the busiest corridor,” with about double the number of trucks that would be expected, Parkhouse said.
That heavy truck traffic is the result of Lake Michigan forcing truck traffic between the East Coast and Chicago through Northwest Indiana.
Adding actual lanes would mean relocating homes and businesses neighboring the Borman, something that would be expensive, painful and highly controversial.
“We’ve been talking about this for a number of years,” he said.
The Borman flex road project is the first planning and environmental linkage project INDOT has launched. Others have been started since.
The PEL is “hyper-focused” on getting public involvement throughout the planning process.
“It’s an exciting project,” Parkhouse said.
Tom Vander Woude, NIRPC’s director of transportation, said fiber optic work will be installed this summer, with road construction to begin in spring 2026. Construction is expected to be completed in late 2028.
The flex road project aims to improve both safety and congestion. Congestion affects air quality.
Beverly Shores Town Council President David Phelps asked about data on emissions from vehicular traffic, a question made more timely as state Sen. Rick Niemeyer, R-Lowell, presses for an end to emissions testing for vehicles in Lake and Porter counties.
“What’s important to our constituents is, are we making progress,” he said.
As a metropolitan planning organization, NIRPC uses figures provided by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management to calculate the impact of road projects on air quality, Vander Woude said.
“It’s hard to convey that to the public at large, that our success was continuous funding,” Porter County Surveyor Kevin Breitzke said. Breitzke heads NIRPC’s Transportation Committee.
That success includes federal funding for major projects like the Borman Expressway flex road project.
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
