Daily Herald
Sept. 29, 2007

Prairie Parkway foes says Rt. 47 is being pushed aside for funding

Foes of the proposed Prairie Parkway are miffed that the state has set aside $32 million for that project but much less toward improving Route 47 this year.

The funds will be used for engineering, land acquisition, and utility movement for a five-mile Kendall County section of the 37-mile highway, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation. The project is included in the state budget approved last month. The road would connect the Reagan Memorial Tollway near Kaneville to I-80 near Morris.

"IDOT continues to ignore the urgent need for adding lanes to Illinois 47," said Jan Strasma, chairman of Citizens Against the Sprawlway, the grassroots group that formed to fight the highway. "Instead the state has a single-minded obsession with building the Prairie Parkway, which will destroy farmland, threaten environmental resources and accelerate sprawl."

Strasma's organization is part of the 47+ Coalition, a group of 11 environmental, agricultural, and public interest groups that prefer expanding Route 47 and other existing roads to building the parkway. IDOT's budget includes $600,000 to resurface and repair Route 47 in Yorkville.