Chicago Tribune
Aug. 24, 2012

It's the end of the road for proposed Prairie Parkway

With litigation, low funding priority, 'Hastert Highway' loses federal approval

By Jon Hilkevitch, Chicago Tribune reporter

The $1 billion Prairie Parkway, a proposed highway in the Chicago region's far outer-ring exurbs that lost momentum when former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert left office, was officially declared dead Thursday.

The Federal Highway Administration rescinded its approval of the parkway, which would have cut through miles of farmland, after it failed to receive a high funding priority in the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning's "Go to 2040'' land-use and transportation blueprint for the seven-county area.
The controversial north-south road was intended to connect Interstate Highway 88 (Reagan Memorial Tollway) in Kane County with Interstate Highway 80 in Grundy County and slice through Kendall County.

The state will use money originally intended for the Prairie Parkway to widen Illinois 47 and connect it with I-80 and I-88, said Josh Kauffman, a spokesman for the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT). It's believed that due to decreased population growth in the area, the improved Illinois 47 will provide enough highway capacity between the two interstates.

Also, under an agreement ending litigation, millions of dollars that had been designated for the 37-mile project will instead be directed toward expanding existing roads in the Kendall County area, officials said. The upgrades include improving U.S. Highway 34 and bridges across the Fox River, officials said.

The move by the Federal Highway Administration was made in connection with the settlement of a lawsuit in U.S. District Court. It was brought by Friends of the Fox River and Citizens Against the Sprawlway against the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration.
The opposition groups charged that the federal agencies and IDOT violated the National Environmental Policy Act by approving the Prairie Parkway without adequately considering other transportation options.

Critics who warned about uncontrolled growth and environmental harm labeled the parkway the "Hastert Highway'' because it was the pet project of Hastert, the once-powerful speaker of the U.S. House in whose then-fast-growing district the parkway was to have been located. Hastert pushed the project as a vital bypass around suburban Chicago as well as a limited-access Fox River crossing.

Parkway opponents expressed jubilation Thursday.

"This project never had a good, strong purpose,'' said Jan Strasma, chairman of Citizens Against the Sprawlway. "Farmland, people and the environment are going to be a lot happier without it."

The federal government's action to essentially abandon the Prairie Parkway will serve as a warning about other high-priced projects with questionable benefits, said Howard Learner, executive director of the Environmental Law and Policy Center, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Fox River and Sprawlway groups in 2009 challenging approval of the project.

"In financially constrained times for transportation projects, the state of Illinois and municipalities need to be very smart about how they devote funds," Learner said. He added that the failed Prairie Parkway may be an omen for other projects, including the proposed Illiana Expressway that would connect highways in Illinois and Indiana and the long-debated extension of Illinois Highway 53 in Lake County.

The plaintiffs in the Prairie Parkway lawsuit contended that IDOT had selected a corridor for the highway before conducting the required environmental review process.

The parkway was estimated to cost more than $1 billion. It has languished for years because of the lack of funding.

Hastert resigned from Congress in 2008 after helping to secure a $207 million federal-funding earmark through transportation legislation to serve as seed money for the project. That same year, the Federal Highway Administration issued a decision approving the highway.

To date, IDOT has spent about $21 million acquiring about 15 parcels, including 300 acres and four houses, for the project, Kauffman said.
Hastert was criticized for partnering with speculators who earned more than $3 million by buying and selling land near the Prairie Parkway route.