For the last 26 years, at breakfast tables and Rotary and chamber luncheons throughout the Wabash Valley, the one question inevitably asked was: Will the Hoosier Heartland Industrial Corridor ever be built? The question being asked today is: When will the entire corridor be open for traffic?

Construction on the Hoosier Heartland Industrial Corridor is continuing at a record pace in Tippecanoe County and Allen County in Indiana, and in Ohio. The highway — the dream of two local businessmen (Jack Porter and Glenn Tanner, both deceased) from Wabash — is now under construction throughout the entire length of Federal Highway Administration Corridor 4 (Heartland Highway), which runs from Lafayette to Toledo, Ohio.

At the end of October, the states of Indiana and Ohio will be conducting a ribboncutting ceremony to open up a substantial section of the eastern section of the corridor. Construction on the western section of the corridor is well underway.

On Nov. 6, Indiana Lt. Gov. Becky S. Skillman will be joining local elected, civic and business leaders at the Hoosier Heartland Industrial Corridor Inc.’s 27th Annual Meeting. This year’s meeting will be at the Honeywell Center in Wabash. The luncheon meeting will be from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. In addition to the lieutenant governor, James Earl II, project engineer for the Indiana Department of Transportation, will provide a construction update on the Lafayette-to- Logansport section of the corridor.

When asked to provide a quick project summary, Earl said, “INDOT is in the midst of a particularly critical time in the delivery of the Hoosier Heartland Industrial Corridor.

As we speak, many different elements are being tweaked and refined in order to deliver the project as quickly as possible. Project elements ranging from environmental mitigation, corridor-wide permitting, coordination of construction on multiple contracts, real estate activities, as well as fiscal responsibilities, are just a few of the challenges being met by the INDOT team. The entire INDOT project team has been working together to tackle these challenges in an effort to realize the ultimate goal — completion by the end of 2013.”

Individuals interested in attending this year’s annual meeting should contact the Wabash Chamber by phone at (260) 563-1168 or email at info@wabashchamber.org. Individuals and organizations can also register online by going to the Wabash Chamber’s website at www.wabashchamber.org. The cost for this year’s annual meeting is $30 per person and tables of eight are available for $250.

Additional information about the Hoosier Heartland Industrial Corridor Highway Coalition can be found on the Hoosier Heartland Industrial Corridor, Inc.’s website http://www.hhicinc.com.