Chicago Tribune
April 29, 2005
Proposals aim to fill transportation needs in western suburbs
By William Presecky
Tribune staff reporter
State road planners will seek public comments next month on the latest round of results from a multiyear study
on ways to address the mounting transportation needs of the six-county area at the edge of Chicago's far west suburbs.
Based on an elaborate analysis of more than 150 transportation improvement suggestions made last summer by area
residents, employers and officials, Illinois Department of Transportation planners have culled and evaluated nearly
two dozen alternatives that have the potential to improve mobility, address traffic deficiencies and enhance safety
and access to regional jobs.
Although the refined list of alternatives that state planners previewed for reporters Thursday includes a possible
Prairie Parkway link between Interstate Highways 88 and 80, none provides a proverbial "silver bullet"
to fully address the needs of the fast-growing area.
A mix of solutions involving a combination of arterial highways only and a combination of arterial highways and
freeways are included in the alternatives that IDOT evaluated.
Measured solely on travel benefits, the study concludes that freeway and arterial combinations "perform best
and improve regional mobility, provide better access to regional jobs and better regional safety."
Ten north-south freeway alternatives and six arterial alternatives are on the pared-down menu that project manager
Rick Powell said IDOT plans to reduce "to one or two, or a very small number, to carry forward for detailed
engineering analysis and environmental impact study."
The agency will present the range of options at two public information meetings, May 10 and 11 in Sugar Grove and
Morris. In addition to proposed new freeways and widened, existing arterial streets, new transit options include
smaller-scale changes such as bicycle trails, coordinating traffic signals and van-pool programs.
Powell described the traffic management strategies being evaluated as "relatively low-cost technologies to
squeeze as much as you can out of the existing [transportation] system."
A new light-rail line along Illinois Highway 47, new bus service west of Aurora and Joliet, new park-and-ride lots
in central Kane County and a reserved right-of-way for transit in freeway corridor alternatives are among the public
transit suggestions that are being advanced.
The detailed study materials to be presented at the open-house-style sessions are expected to be posted no later
than Sunday on the project Web site, www.prairie-parkway.com, Powell said.
The information that will be available at the meetings includes maps of the alternatives and charts that evaluate
the transportation benefits and the environmental impacts of each.
Moving increased traffic across the Fox River in Kendall County poses "a formidable [environmental] challenge,"
said Ed Leonard, a planner with Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade Douglas Inc., the New York-based engineering and construction
services firm hired by IDOT to oversee the study.
At least five crossings east and west of Yorkville have been analyzed with mixed results, Leonard said.
River crossings that appear to do the most for improving mobility also pose greater environmental challenges, he
said.
Potential crossings east of Yorkville, for example, have the greatest overall impacts and cost more than those
west of Yorkville, Leonard said.
While the freeway alternatives being advanced perform better, they also have a greater impact, Powell said.
With the projected conclusion in midsummer of the preliminary engineering phase of the so-called Prairie Parkway
study, Powell said IDOT will have completed about 2 1/2 years of what he projects will be a six-year process.
The 1,600-square-mile area being studied includes parts of Kane, Kendall, Will, Grundy, LaSalle and DeKalb Counties.
The federally funded study was initiated after IDOT moved quickly in July 2002 to protect from encroachment a 36-mile-long
by 400-foot-wide corridor for a possible north-south freeway linking I-88 and I-80.
Despite high-level governmental support for building a so-called Prairie Parkway, IDOT planners say they are not
predisposed to concluding that a freeway is the only or best alternative.
Evaluation of the varied alternatives "will enable people to judge for themselves which ... seem to be the
most effective," said Gregg Mounts, IDOT's deputy director of highways.
"We are looking forward to hearing the public's opinions ... because it will help us take the next step to
develop just a small set of recommended transportation improvements to study in more detail," Mounts said.