News Reports about Prairie Parkway

Aurora Beacon-News
Sept. 23, 2008

Parkway gets OK, but who's going to pay?

By Steve Lord and Christine Moyer

The federal government has given its final blessing to the Prairie Parkway project, but plenty of questions still remain.

The Federal Highway Administration announced Monday that it had entered a record of decision, which in effect ends the environmental impact study and allows the project to enter the construction phase.

Officials from the Illinois Department of Transportation said the state will start buying land, finishing engineering and final design, looking at wetland mitigation and even beginning construction on the long discussed highway that would connect interstates 80 and 88.

The record of decision also approved expanding Route 47 from I-80 to Caton Farm Road, where it will connect to other planned or programmed Route 47 widening projects.

On Monday, state officials said work can begin shortly on the first leg of the project, which will be a new bridge over the Fox River linking Routes 71 and 34 near Yorkville. Rick Powell, studies and plans engineer for the Illinois Department of Transportation, said IDOT has the money in the 2009 fiscal year budget, which already has begun, to acquire land for the bridge.

"Theoretically, by the end of 2009, we could have all the land purchased and construction under way for the bridge," Powell said. Powell added if IDOT gets full funding, the bridge could be finished in three to four years.

Full funding, of course, is the essential ingredient. Only projects mentioned in the first year of IDOT's six-year plan are guaranteed funding, and sometimes even those are not. Overall, between 2009 and 2014, there is $184.2 million in state and federal money committed to the Prairie Parkway project.

But funds in the years after the first year of the improvement program can be changed, and often are, by the legislature. A lot depends on the whether the legislature funds a capital plan for major transportation and school construction projects. While no plan has been approved, Powell said Prairie Parkway funding has been included in each proposal mentioned so far.

So some local officials remain skeptical.

"There's always been funding at the federal level," said Kendall County board member Bob Davidson. "But if the state can match it, it still don't make a baby."

Oswego Village President Brian LeClercq stressed the importance of improving and widening local roads, which have grown increasingly clogged due to new development. But he also has his doubts.

"They've got the approval but where's the money?" he said. "I'm not optimistic about it ... unfortunately."

The Prairie Parkway is a protected road corridor that connects I-80, west of Minooka in Grundy County, with I-88 near Kaneville in Kane County. Most of the corridor runs through Kendall County.

Powell said after the bridge corridor, the next priority would be to buy all the land in the protected corridor. He estimated that, too, could be done by the end of 2009.

After the bridge between routes 71 and 34, the next priority is linking routes 34 and 30, to the Kane County line, he said.