The Illiana Expressway study is crawling along, moving toward a recommendation on possible routes for this portion of an outer ring around the Chicago area.

The expressway will be a much more condensed version than the plan rejected by the Indiana General Assembly last year. The new incarnation will connect I-57 in Illinois with I-65 in Indiana. It won't continue on through Porter and LaPorte counties to complete the outer ring, connecting to I-94.

It also won't be built with private dollars under the current proposal. The public will be expected to pick up the tab for the construction.

That much has been known since the study was authorized by the General Assembly last year. So what's new?

Andy Dietrick, a spokesman for the Indiana Department of Transportation, said Cambridge, Mass.-based Cambridge Systematics is in the first of six phases of its study. Cambridge will identify three possible routes, likely northern, central and southern options.

By Jan. 1, Cambridge is expected to submit a first draft that will include traffic patterns, lane configurations, environmental impact, possible tolls and anticipated traffic levels through 2035.

Dietrick said INDOT doesn't plan to disclose cost estimates until the study in completed in July 2009.

A legislative committee has been set up to study the expressway, but Dietrick said he isn't aware of any committee meetings scheduled this summer. Not to hear an update on the study's progress would be a mistake.

House Speaker Pat Bauer on Tuesday appointed state Rep. Terri Austin, the House Transportation Committee chairwoman, to chair the Illiana Expressway Proposal Review Committee. Austin knows firsthand about the original Illiana Expressway and Indiana Commerce Connector -- an outer ring around Indianapolis -- proposals and the controversy last year.

Part of what torpedoed the original plan was that people were caught off guard when the grand plan was unveiled. They needed time to think through the concept.

One of the opponents now says one of her primary objections was that the route would cut off north-south traffic throughout Porter County. That could have been addressed in the design of the road, however.

Instead, the study of the full route wasn't authorized. This shorter route was instead.

Rather than surprise everyone when the study is completed, state lawmakers on the Illiana oversight committee need to meet this summer to hear progress and offer guidance so the process will go more smoothly this time. And keep the public updated along the way.

The Illiana Expressway has been discussed -- and needed -- for decades. The new road being discussed now must not suffer the same fate as the longer route.