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DOT meeting addresses Prairie Parkway road closures

by Susan O'Neill
No one wants their roads closed, but due to the upcoming construction of the Prairie Parkway, that is exactly what may happen.
Illinois Department of Transportation officials said it would cost too much to reroute traffic around the closed roads, turn the intersecting roads into bridges, or build the Prairie Parkway as an overpass over existing roads.
Lasher and Wheeler are two of the 13 roads IDOT proposed to close, affecting Kaneville, Big Rock and Sugar Grove.
IDOT representatives explained that they conducted an evaluation of each of the 37 roads that cross the Prairie Parkway corridor before coming up with the 13 they recommended. The alternatives were to either reroute the traffic to another adjacent road or build a bridge over the existing road.
IDOT engineers evaluated the 37 roads by comparing the travel cost to motorists to close the road versus building a bridge over it. In addition, they considered the ability of the adjacent roadways to handle the additional traffic, as well as changes in travel patterns and access issues. Through meetings and feedback from counties, municipalities, emergency services, schools and the general public, they made some revisions to their original plan.
But some people feel that the feedback provided to IDOT officials has fallen on deaf ears. During the last election, residents of the villages of Kaneville and Big Rock passed non-binding referendums stating that they did not want the road at all.
“There are two towns who have said we don't want you—Kaneville and Big Rock,” said Sally Carr, a former Big Rock resident. “You never listen to us.”
Although IDOT engineers said they have been careful to avoid wetlands as much as possible while planning for the road. Kaneville resident Lynette Werdin said she wished they had avoided farmland as well.
Lorraine Dunteman, whose family owns a nearly 700-acre turf farm business, said that the realignment of the corridor would place the road directly through the land on which they grow sod.
“They should drop the whole project,” Dunteman said. “They're not interested in people. They're bound and determined to do what they want to do.”
Lorraine’s daughter Sue wondered why IDOT is not taking the money to fix and maintain the existing roads.
IDOT project engineer Rick Powell said the Prairie Parkway plan also includes the widening of 12 miles of Route 47 from Caton Farm Road south to I-80. However, there is currently no funding available to accomplish it.
Included in the 2005 Federal Transportation Bill was $4 million in funding earmarked for the acquisition of property in Yorkville to make room for widening Rt. 47 through the city.
Although preliminary engineering has taken place for the road through Yorkville, Powell said that IDOT is not allowed to spend the money to purchase property until it receives capital improvement funding from the state legislature to widen the road.
Powell added that funding for widening the remainder of Rt. 47 to four lanes north to Interstate 88 would likely have to come from the state or local developers looking to build along the road.
Opponents of the highway would like to see the funds set aside for the Prairie Parkway diverted away from the parkway to be spent on widening Route 47 all the way from I-80 to I-88.
Citizens Against the Sprawlway's Jan Strasma said that there is no reason that IDOT couldn't use the $157 million from the federal transportation bill to improve Route 47, which runs between I-80 and I-88. He said the money was earmarked for a north-south connector between I-88 and I-80, not a highway.
“It does not specify the Prairie Parkway,” Strasma said. “It specifies a function. Instead, they've been plowing ahead on the Prairie Parkway.
Strasma said that IDOT currently only has enough money to build five miles of the project, from Route 71 on the south end of Yorkville to Route 34, which is in the center of Yorkville.
The ultimate plan for the proposed Prairie Parkway is for 37 miles of four-lane highway that would run from Interstate 80 west of Minooka in Grundy County, curving over to the east just south of Caton Farm Road in Kendall County, and ending at Interstate 88 east of Kaneville.
The freeway will have interchanges at routes 52, 47, 34 and 30 to provide access to the local road system.
IDOT officials have said they are starting with the stretch between Routes 71 and 34 because that is where the most traffic is, and because a portion of the earmarked money specifically targets the intersection at Route 34.
Strasma said that when this stretch of road is built, a motorist traveling north on Route 47 who wanted to use the Prairie Parkway segment would have to drive three and a half miles west on Route 71 to get to the Prairie Parkway. Then they could drive five miles on the Prairie Parkway, and then go back three and a half miles back east on Route 34 to get back on Route 47.
“Why don't they just spend that money on widening 47?” he asked.
“It's like eating the middle of the donut,” said Carr.
Powell said that land acquisition could start in 2008. Depending on project readiness and funding availability, construction on the stretch between Routes 71 and 34 could begin as soon as 2009, with a completion date of 2011.
As for the funding, Powell said that funding for roads typically is parceled out piecemeal.
“We usually don't get $1 billion plopped in our lap at once,” he said. “Nearly every road is built this way.”