Daily Herald
July 29, 2005
By Patrick Waldron
Daily Herald Staff Writer
In perhaps his last, best chance to bring home the big dollars, House Speaker Dennis Hastert lined up nearly $300 million for Kane County roads, including enough to jump start the Prairie Parkway and build a bridge across the Fox River.
After two years of delays and negotiations, the $286.4 billion, six-year federal funding plan to cover road, bridge and mass transit projects nationwide through 2009 was expected to pass the House late Thursday and the Senate sometime Friday. The White House has said the president would then sign it into law.
Buried inside thousands of legislative pages, Hastert etched out $207 million for the Prairie Parkway, a proposed Kane County and Kendall County expressway to connect I-80 to I-88, and $70.4 million to build a Stearns Road bridge in St. Charles Township.
"These are some of the fastest growing counties in the nation and it is essential that we invest in transportation projects to accommodate that growth," said Brad Hahn, spokesman for Hastert, a Plano Republican. "By planning and investing today, we can avoid gridlock and protect the quality of life for residents across the region."
With the bridge, an estimated $120 million, six-stage project that would extend Stearns Road west to Randall Road, the federal bounty means a concept can now become a four-lane overpass.
"We will move people across the river with $70 million," said county board Chairman Karen McConnaughay, a St. Charles Republican.
Although it is less than the $88 million promised to the Stearns project in earlier versions of the long-stalled legislation, county transportation director Carl Schoedel said the cash is enough to get traffic over the water by 2009. More than $16 million in federal money has previously been set aside for Stearns and the state has about $10 million.
"We have a six-stage plan, and we can accomplish quite a bit with $70 million," he said. "Seventy million is nothing to sneeze at. It's a positive thing."
Using his political muscle, Hastert delivered nearly three times the Stearns amount to the Prairie Parkway, a proposal still on the early drawing boards but until now running on financial empty.
Throughout his 19 years in Congress, the Prairie Parkway has been a top priority. Hastert has committed to running for another 2-year term in 2006, but could be out of Congress by the time the next 6-year funding bill comes around.
"The speaker believes the Prairie Parkway is vital for the transportation needs of the area," Hahn said.
Opponents of the proposed expressway, who believe it will be a catalyst for urban sprawl, see waste.
"I think it is premature," said Jan Strasma, spokesman for the group Citizens Against the Sprawlway.
Strasma noted that the Illinois Department of Transportation continues to study transportation options in the region and warned that all that cash should not be placed in a just a Prairie Parkway basket.
Elsewhere in the Fox Valley, the transportation package includes $3.34 million for a parking deck near the Geneva Metra station and $3.76 million for a parking deck in downtown St. Charles.
The widening of Route 47 between Kreutzer and Reed roads through downtown Huntley will get about $6 million.
Other major suburban transportation projects also gain big in the funding package.
A western bypass from the Tri-State Tollway connecting to a planned western terminal at O'Hare International Airport gets $140 million, a nice advance for the estimated $1.5 billion project.
This new transportation act also puts a Congressional endorsement on Metra's so-called STAR line proposal linking O'Hare with Arlington Heights, Hoffman Estates, Naperville and other suburbs, a project that could cost $1.2 billion.
The legislation doesn't hand over a specific dollar amount, but clears the way for Metra to apply to the Department of Transportation for full funding. Overall, the legislation provides a total of $50 billion for mass transit initiatives, 18 percent of the total package.
Known as the Transportation Equity Act, the package replaces a similar 6-year spending plan passed in 1998. Since that package ran out, lawmakers have approved 11 extensions to keep cash flowing to states and their projects.