New US 24 opens to traffic late today
ALLEN COUNTY, Ind. (Indiana Department of Transportion) – Governor Mitch Daniels joined federal, state and local officials; the Greater Fort Wayne Chamber of Commerce; representatives from the Fort to Port Coalition; project contractors and the Indiana Department of Transportation for a ribbon cutting ceremony today on the US 24 Fort to Port project between I-469 in New Haven and the Indiana-Ohio state line.
“There are some active things that government must do, and the best example is to develop infrastructure. Only government can build roads like US 24, the Hoosier Heartland and all the rest,” said Daniels. “The generations of young people today are more likely now to have a job at a business that locates along or near US 24, the Hoosier Heartland Corridor or any of these other arteries that we would not otherwise have had.”
“For so many years, people talked, hoped, wished, and prayed that someday, somehow, we would be able to modernize US 24 east of Fort Wayne. The wish was for a road that finally eliminated all of the terrible accidents that occurred year after year. The idea of a four-lane interstate-quality highway was just a pipe dream. To see this road finally constructed as a non-stop, four-lane expressway from Fort Wayne to Toledo is a stunning achievement,” said State Senate President Pro Tem David Long. “It is one of the great legacies of the Daniels administration. And it never would have occurred without the funding created by leasing the Toll Road. For that alone, we here in northeast Indiana are deeply and eternally grateful to the strong, visionary leadership of Governor Mitch Daniels.”
The $93 million Major Moves project involved the construction of a new four-lane, limited access expressway between New Haven, Ind., and the Indiana-Ohio state line. Major Moves capitalizes on Indiana’s strategic location at the Crossroads of America by improving and expanding road infrastructure in support of a stronger economy and greater mobility. Indiana’s 11.2-mile section is part of the larger Fort to Port project, which connects US 24 from New Haven to Waterville, Ohio, for a distance of 75 miles.
This project improves access and safety, and promotes economic development across northeastern Indiana and northern Ohio. It also provides direct connections to I-80/I-90, I-75, and I-69/I-469, which joins SR 25 Hoosier Heartland Corridor, connecting I-69 in Fort Wayne to I-65 in Lafayette. This roadway enables the motoring public to reach destinations northward into the Great Lakes Region and Canada and other large cities on the eastern seaboard.
