Chicago Tribune
July 30, 2004
Prairie Parkway study awaited
By William Presecky
Tribune staff reporter
A citizens group opposed to an expressway along suburban Chicago's far western
fringe is urging Illinois' top transportation official to defer seeking federal funds for the Prairie Parkway until
a need for it is determined by a state study.
In a letter Thursday to state Transportation Secretary Tim Martin, the Citizens Against the Sprawlway, a grass-roots
group opposed to the outer-belt project, asked that funding for the Prairie Parkway be kept out of the multiyear
transportation bill pending in Congress.
Martin has identified the Prairie Parkway, in Kane and Kendall Counties as a key transportation project for the
state.
The Illinois Department of Transportation, however, has not requested any funding for the project nor is funding
included in the bill before a House-Senate conference committee, said spokesman Matt Vanover.
U.S. House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) is a leading proponent for construction of a north-south expressway
linking Interstate Highways 88 and 80 through his fast-growing west suburban district.
Despite Hastert's overt support for the project, "At this point the speaker is focused on building consensus
so that we have a transportation bill," said spokesman Brad Hahn.
"Until there is consensus on the size and scope of a bill, any debate on specific projects seems premature,"
said Hahn.
Vanover said IDOT does not make requests to pre-empt federal funding.
"We're not going to say to anyone `Don't include any federal funding for this,'" he said. "The
department has never done anything like that."
IDOT is in the second year of an estimated four-to six-year study to identify and address the mounting transportation
needs of a 1,600-square-mile, six-county area. A 36-mile-long by 400-foot-wide corridor is being protected by the
department in the event an expressway is deemed necessary.
The call to defer a request for federal funds is rooted in the assertion by IDOT staff and consultants that the
study was begun with a clean slate, with "no preordained solution to the area's transportation needs,"
said group chairman Jan Strasma.
"It is premature to seek funding for any transportation project until the ongoing study has determined the
recommended alternative and that alternative has been accepted by IDOT," Strasma said.
Deferring funding is needed "to maintain the integrity of the study process," he said.