Daily Herald
June 2, 2007
BY LISA SMITH
The proposed 37-mile Prairie Parkway will meander east through Kendall
County, likely spurring economic development near interchanges in both
Kane and Kendall counties before connecting with Interstate 80 near
Minooka, under plans unveiled Friday.
The Illinois Department of Transportation announced it would pursue the
so-called B5 alignment instead of the alternative known as B2, which
would have taken the four-lane expressway straight south from its
starting point at the Reagan Memorial Tollway near Kaneville to meet up
with I-80 near Morris.
But the majority of the $954.7 million project remains unfunded and it
could be another 20 years before the long-awaited project is complete,
IDOT engineer Rick Powell said at a media briefing held at the old
Kendall County Courthouse in Yorkville.
"At the end of the study, we'll have to come up with a funding plan,
identify funding sources," Powell said. "We haven't done that yet."
About $10 million in state and $207 million in federal funds - secured
two years ago by U.S. Rep. Dennis Hastert - have been allocated to the
project thus far.
Also known as the Outer Belt, the regional highway will be built in
phases, with construction beginning as soon as 2009, Powell said. It
will reduce traffic congestion and bring 58,000 more jobs to the area
by the year 2030, according to IDOT estimates.
But the Prairie Parkway also will result in the relocation of 22 homes
and the destruction of 1,665 acres of prime farmland, according to the
state's own environmental study.
That's why members of a grassroots group have long opposed the project.
An overwhelming majority of Big Rock and Kaneville township voters said
in an April advisory referendum that the expressway should not be built.
"We believe (the funds) should be applied to improving Illinois 47
instead of building an entire new highway with all its environmental
costs and loss of thousands of acres of prime farmland," said Jan
Strasma, president of Citizens Against the Sprawlway.
IDOT officials are pursuing that project separately from the Prairie
Parkway. Route 47 will be widened from two to four lanes regardless of
whether the parkway is built, Powell said.
Route 47 would be widened between the Reagan Tollway and I-80. There is no timeline for that project.
Local government officials had expressed support for the B5 over the
B2. IDOT narrowed a list of more than a dozen possible routes to those
two in 2005.