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Kane County Chronicle
September 23, 2008

Feds OK funding for Prairie Parkway plan

By JONATHAN BILYK

The federal government has greenlighted the first phases of the construction of the Prairie Parkway.

On Monday, the Illinois Department of Transportation announced that the Federal Highway Administration has granted formal approval for the project.

The Record of Decision effectively grants the state permission to use about $182 million in federal road funds to begin work on the first five-mile stretch of the controversy-plagued highway in Yorkville. The project also will include plans to widen Route 47 to a four-lane highway from Interstate 80 to Caton Farm Road.

When it is fully completed, the Parkway is planned to run from Interstate 88 near Kaneville south to Interstate 80, west of Mokena. It is projected to cost more than $900 million.

Supporters say the new highway would serve as a north-south alternative to Route 47, allowing the state and local authorities to promote further economic growth in the region while relieving congestion.

IDOT spokesman Mike Claffey said the Federal Highway Administration approval essentially moves the project from a study phase into the beginning of the action phase.

The state now can move forward on acquiring the land for the project, finalizing road design, relocating utilities, mitigating wetlands and construction of the new road and bridges in Kendall County.

At the same time, the state also will move to acquire the land for the full length of the Parkway, Claffey said.

Full construction, however, will depend on the availability of funds.

Claffey said IDOT intends to pursue that funding from the federal government and other sources.

Kane County officials said they were pleased to hear that the Parkway was moving forward.

“This is a project that the Kane County board supports,” said Bill Wyatt, chairman of the Kane County Board’s Transportation Committee. “And so I, for one, am happy to hear that they’re going to move this into the next phase.”

Kane County Board Chairman Karen McConnaughay said she also welcomed the news, noting that the state’s actions now could save much trouble in the future, as it will mean “fewer people will be disrupted when the road is built.”

“Protecting the right-of-way now is a good visionary step to ensure a good regional transportation network to meet the transportation needs of the future,” McConnaughay said.

Opponents, however, such as the group Citizens Against the Sprawlway, maintain that the Prairie Parkway, which had been pushed strongly by former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives J. Dennis Hastert, is a political boondoggle. These opponents have called into question land deals near the proposed highway corridor that reportedly netted Hastert millions.

State Sen. Chris Lauzen, R-Aurora, is among those who have long criticized the Parkway project.

Lauzen said Monday that the state likely was making a mistake moving ahead with this project, using the $182 million to pay “$40 million a mile” for a new roadway rather than channeling the funds to improve Route 47.

He said the project could turn out to be the Illinois version of Alaska’s so-called “Bridge to Nowhere,” a federal transportation earmark that has served as the poster child for Congressional financial watchdogs.

“This is designed to reward the politically powerful, land speculators and the people who lobby for a living, rather than the taxpayers,” Lauzen said.

U.S. Rep. Bill Foster, D-Batavia, said the U.S. Department of Transportation announcement did not come as a surprise, as the money “had been appropriated for this purpose a long time ago.”

Foster, however, stopped short of promising support for any further funding of the project.

“In the future, funding for new highway construction projects should be part of a comprehensive plan and designed to provide the maximum benefit for the citizens of the 14th District,” Foster said in a statement.