Morris Daily Herald
October 4, 2005
Routes east, west of Morris still in running
By Jo Ann Hustis
Herald Writer
YORKVILLE &endash; Corridors east and west of Morris are finalists for the location of the proposed Prairie Parkway linking Interstates 88 and 80.
The B-2 Corridor is located about four miles west of Morris in the Saratoga-Pioneer Road area in Saratoga and Nettle Creek townships.
The B-5 Corridor is about three miles west of Minooka in Aux Sable Township, hooking up with Interstate 80 near Tabler Road.
The corridors are generally 2.5 miles wide each. Both connect Interstate 88 in Kane County with Interstate 80 in Grundy County.
Plans to widen Illinois 47 south from Caton Farm Road to I-80 also are in the works, officials with the Illinois Department of Transportation, District 3, Ottawa, noted during a press conference Monday in Yorkville.
Public information meetings regarding the two finalist corridors are scheduled for to-night, Tuesday, Oct. 4, at the Yorkville Mid-dle School, 702 Game Farm Road, Yorkville, and on Wed-nesday, Oct. 5, at White Oak Elementary School, 2001 DuPont Ave., in Morris.
Both meetings begin at 5:30 p.m. and end at 8 p.m. A presentation and question-answer session will be at 6:30 p.m. each night.
More detailed maps will be available during the meetings "if people really want to get down to that," noted Prairie Parkway project manager Rick Powell of District 3.
"We haven't made any definitive alignment decisions &emdash; we just have the general area that we're looking at," Powell said during the press conference.
"Obviously, if people have concerns about their property, we'll keep them apprised. But now is not the time when we're defining the exact limits. People (attending the informational meetings) will be able to see the general area where these alignments might go."
District 3 spokesman Ed Leonard said the meetings tonight and Wednesday give the public a voice in what might be the ultimate location and generate information IDOT can use in making the decision.
"If we couldn't avoid something like a centennial farm or historical area, maybe we could move an alignment to minimize the impact, like away from a farmstead," Leonard said.
Powell said, many times people will identify landmarks of which the agency was not aware.
"Like we've got several letters where people have farms that have the ability be designated as Centennial Farms, but they never bothered to get them registered. People have actually gone out and gotten their farms registered and informed us of that," Powell said.
He said the agency has received a lot of comments and petitions from people wishing to preserve the B-2 Corridor as an agricultural or non-development area.
Powell also said it was impossible to say at this time when the final decision on a corridor will be made.
"We might be down to one corridor within a few months. Or it might take up to a year or so, depending on what we find," he said. "Again, public involvement and engineering and environmental studies will have to be considered before we make that decision."
Powell could not say whether one corridor was more favored over the other.
"There's advantages and disadvantages to both, so we have to weigh those out," he said.
Reed Wilson, district director for Congressman Jerry Weller, R-Morris, said Weller this summer had sent replies to several residents in the B-2 Corridor area, indicating he favored the B-5 Corridor west of Minooka.
"Now that the final routes are selected, I believe the congressman will get official correspondence out to IDOT, favoring the route east of Illinois 47," Wilson said today.
He said no one has contacted Weller in favor of the B-2 Corridor.
Wilson said IDOT hopes to present a draft of the environmental impact statement in the fall of 2006.
"It could be sooner if IDOT decides there are too many problems with one of the two corridors," he noted. "They may just pull the plug on the route with the many problems and go with the other route."
IDOT's environmental impact findings indicate higher impacts on buildings and development, parks, natural areas, wetlands, and displacement of homes in the eastern alternatives.
The western alternatives have greater impact on farmlands, but a lower overall level of impacts.
Powell said the agency narrowed the two finalists from a field of 150 alternatives in a study area of 1,500 square miles &emdash; "Our famous spaghetti bowl map," he said.
He said IDOT concentrated on 16 different road alternates in narrowing the choices to the final two.
"We have a 'no action' alternative, which includes some expected widening of Illinois 47, and the WiKaDuKe Trail" in western Will County and eastern Grundy County, Powell said.
"We have two 'build' alternatives in addition to the expected improvements we expect to see on Illinois 47. That is, to build a new freeway from I-88 to I-80 on either the B-2 or B-5 corridors, and also to complete widening of Illinois 47 from Caton Farm Road to I-80 in Morris, and to look at some transit and traffic management strategies to help the existing network operate in a multi-modal fashion," he noted.
He also noted the federal funding in the new Highway Transportation Bill would assist with building the Prairie Parkway.
"It certainly is good to have a reserve of money there," he said.
"Once you find what the ultimate solution should be, there's some money there to implement it."