Daily Herald
October 4, 2005
By Patrick Waldron
Daily Herald Staff Writer
A new expressway, cutting through Kane and Kendall counties west of Sugar Grove and Yorkville, combined with the expansion of Route 47 and the Eola Road corridor represent the best transportation options for the growing region.
That conclusion offered by state transportation officials Monday narrowed down possible corridors for the proposed Prairie Parkway to two and came as the Illinois Supreme Court notified attorneys that it would consider a case brought by rural landowners seeking to block the controversial expressway.
For more than two years, the Illinois Department of Transportation has been studying a "spaghetti bowl" of options for the path of a future expressway linking the Ronald Reagan Tollway in Kane County to I-80 in Grundy County. The list of alternatives included 10 possible freeway configurations and six options for expansion of existing north-south arterial roads, such as Route 47.
That spaghetti bowl now is down to a couple of noodles.
"What this has told us is we need to look at a combination of alternatives," said Edward Leonard, an engineering consultant for IDOT. "The arterial (road expansions) didn't do it at all and the freeway only did OK."
After years of study and gathering of public feedback, IDOT's team believes the best approach is to expand Route 47 and the so-called WiKaDuKe corridor (Eola Road and south to Grundy County) and build an expressway in western Kane and Kendall counties. That infrastructure and the expansion of public transportation via extended Pace bus routes and Metra lines, including the STAR line, represent the area's greatest hope for congestion relief, state transportation engineers argue.
The recommendations, which now become the subject of a new round of public comment and a more in-depth environmental impact study, are scheduled to be presented to residents today and Wednesday during two public information meetings. The first is from 5:30 to 8 p.m. today at Yorkville Middle School in Yorkville and the second is from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at White Oak Elementary School in Morris.
IDOT's latest recommendations attempt to give a little something to all sides of the Prairie Parkway debate.
For opponents, the study acknowledges the strong need for improvements to Route 47 and another north-south route, the WiKaDuKe, a series of roads beginning with Eola Road in Aurora that already is expanding as development progresses.
For supporters, the new announcements narrow the rough alignment to two options, both somewhat resembling the protected corridor mapped out by IDOT in 2002 that runs south from the Reagan Tollway in Big Rock Township through Plano before curing east in southern Kendall County.
The first IDOT parkway option aligns closely to that corridor. The second option follows the protected corridor along the northern half but continues straight south connecting to I-80 just west of Morris.
For those who just want a way to beat the traffic, this keeps the Prairie Parkway, likely a $1 billion project, moving forward.
As all that goes ahead, so does a lawsuit aimed to prevent it from getting on the map. About 50 landowners in Kane and Kendall counties have sued IDOT, saying the corridor designation violates their property rights.
The case has twice been defeated &emdash; once in circuit court and once before the 2nd District Appellate Court in Elgin &emdash; but this week the owners' attorney, Tim Dwyer, said the state supreme court has signaled its intent to consider the matter.
"This issue, this statute has not been adjudicated yet," Dwyer said. "There are a number of constitutional issues here," Dwyer said. "Them taking the case keeps it alive."