The long-awaited start of the Gary-Chicago International Airport expansion has been cleared for takeoff and northwest Indiana officials are hoping it will create jobs and attract investment.
GARY, Ind. (AP) — The long-awaited start of the Gary-Chicago International Airport expansion has been cleared for takeoff and northwest Indiana officials are hoping it will create jobs and attract investment. "Northwest Indiana’s engine turns today in the biggest economic development in the Chicago region," Gary Mayor Rudy Clay said at the groundbreaking Wednesday, the Post-Tribune of Merrillville reported. The $153 million project is expected to take 2-1/2 years to complete. The project will include extending the main runway to 8,900 feet from its current 7,000 feet, enabling it to handle most passenger airliners and larger cargo planes. The airport authority last month approved a deal allowing the removal of railroad tracks that were blocking the runway expansion. The Gary airport expansion kicked off in 2006 when the Federal Aviation Administration issued a letter of intent for $57.8 million to fund the project, but negotiations with railroads over moving tracks at the end of the main runway dragged on for years, The Times of Munster reported. "Many other mayors and many other airport boards pushed this project, but we are the ones blessed to be actually doing it," Clay said. The project includes a new $7.1 million headquarters for the Gary Jet Center that will include a 40,000-square-foot hangar and 6,000 square feet of office space. Airport interim Director Steve Landry told the Post-Tribune the reconstruction project will create about 1,000 jobs and attract private investment for the airport. He said the work will begin with removing soil from a former landfill and replacing it with new soil. Runway construction will not begin until 2012. City officials hope the expansion will help the airport become the region’s third major air hub behind Chicago’s O’Hare and Midway airports. The Times reported that a number of speakers thanked the city of Chicago for the $9.5 million it is putting into the Gary airport’s expansion. Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
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