(The following story by Lee Provost appeared on the Daily-Journal website on April 14, 2009.)
KANKAKEE, Ill. — Creating job opportunities in Kankakee County may likely depend on how successful officials are in creating intermodal developments here.
A first step was taken Monday afternoon when about 20 Kankakee area and Chicagoland officials gathered at the Bourbonnais Municipal Center to begin laying tracks for potential intermodal development to capitalize on the rail lines that dissect the region.
Adam Roth, a senior associate with Industrial Services Group, an organization that has worked extensively on the massive CenterPoint intermodal development in the Will County community of Elwood, said if Kankakee County wants to move on this, the time is now because of the amount of time needed to build a facility.
“Even in the current market we are seeing continual development in intermodal developments,” he said. “There is expansion going on.”
There is still plenty of opportunity for Kankakee, even with the 8.5 million-square-foot intermodal in Elwood and developing intermodals in Joliet and Crete, Roth said.
Plus, the time is right for intermodal activity. Fuel prices will rise again, making highway travel costly, he noted. He also said the lack of highway maintenance will lead to greater difficulty for truck traffic. Furthermore, the trucker work force is aging.
“Rail development addresses all these factors. These issues aren’t going to go away,” he said.
The Canadian National rail line runs through the heart of Kankakee County, and the Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific lines run through its boundaries.
Bringing in jobs
Employment from an intermodal development would go a long way here.
Kankakee County’s economy has been stagnant the past few years, and Richard Kaye, an Illinois Department of Employment Security labor market economist, said this region could use a boost.
Kankakee County had an unemployment rate of 12 percent in February, but when Kaye factors in “discouraged workers” — those not reporting to the employment office — and the “underemployed,” the county unemployment figure could be closer to 28-29 percent.
Kaye said even when the nation’s economy was running strong, Kankakee County was experiencing little job growth. Employment has been running in the 44,000- to 45,000-job total for the past three to four years, he said.
And now that the Midwest economy has slowed to a crawl, it will likely be six months to two years before the region sees an upswing. Stimulus money, he said, will likely have little impact.
Said Kaye, “The short-term will be difficult. I think 12 percent unemployment will probably get worse.”