Daily Herald
December 9, 2004
By Patrick Waldron
Daily Herald Staff Writer
A future Prairie Parkway, if there is one, may not be the shape, size nor in the same place many residents in Kane
and Kendall counties think it will be, state transportation officials said Wednesday.
Instead it could move west or east of a controversial state-designated expressway corridor cutting through southwestern
Kane and Kendall counties and linking I-80 with I-88, under scenarios now being reviewed by the Illinois Department
of Transportation.
For instance, the proposed expressway could disappear, instead yielding to a larger Route 47. Or it could become
a new main north-south route where there now is only a rural County Line Road.
"With a limited amount of information, a corridor was protected as a planning tool," said Rick Powell,
a project engineer with the Illinois Department of Transportation. "We do have the flexibility to change or
remove that corridor if we find something else."
Since state officials designated the expressway corridor in 2002 and put that news on landowners' deeds, opposition
to the road plan has been widespread. That, and federal rules dictating such infrastructure projects, eventually
led IDOT to seek public feedback and ideas for alternatives.
Those alternative concepts were collected during a series of workshops in June. An overview of the 150 alternatives
went on display Wednesday at John Shields Elementary School in Sugar Grove during the first of two public information
meetings this week.
The IDOT presentation showed ideas for new expressway routes east and west of the current protected corridor, as
well as suggestions for expanded existing roads. It also put forth plans for new local or arterial north-south
roads the size of Route 59. Calls for more mass transit options and bus lines also made the list.
Most of the 50 residents who turned out to view the alternatives were chiefly interested in where a future freeway
could go. The suggested corridors included one that runs a straight shot from I-88 to I-80 along the western borders
of Kane and Kendall counties.
To the east, the alternatives included calls for an expressway parallel to the Eola Road corridor, essentially
aligned with the eastern Kendall County border and south of Aurora.
State transportation officials told residents Wednesday that all of these options will be considered.
The problem state officials face is that few believe big changes are ahead for the project that in reality still
has no money to build it but does have the strong backing of U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, a Plano Republican.
Tom Scidmore, of Lisbon in Kendall County and a Prairie Parkway opponent, said he didn't buy any notion that the
state will move the corridor.
"They are trying to pacify us," he said, of the so-called alternatives.
A second public meeting is scheduled from 5:30 to 8 p.m. tonight at White Oak Elementary School, 2001 Dupont Ave.,
Morris.