Updated 8/28/2010 - August 2010 Update (pdf) | Prairie Parkway News Coverage | Contact us
The Illinois Tollway is looking at the Prairie Parkway as a future tollway project, one of five under consideration. The tollway staff is currently gathering information on the project and met earlier this month with State Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia and several groups opposing the Prairie Parkway, including Citizens Against the Sprawlway. The staff will likely present its findings to the tollway board later this fall. The other projects under consideration are (1) the Elgin O'Hare Expressway and western bypass to O'Hare; (2) extending Illinois 53 north into Lake and McHenry counties; (3) the proposed Illiana Expressway into Indiana through the southern suburbs; (4) and rebuilding Interstate 90 to Rockford. Rocco Zucchero, the tollway's deputy director for planning, pointed out that, of the five projects being considered, only the Prairie Parkway has substantial local opposition. Further, the other four projects have already been authorized by the legislature, should the tollway choose to undertake them.
The Metrowest Council of Governments -- composed of the municipalities in Kane and Kendall counties -- voted 9-7 to support the Prairie Parkway at its July 22 meeting. Kendall County has been campaigning for months to get the Metrowest endorsement. While the vote favored the Prairie Parkway, the 7 municipalities voting against it showed there is hardly consensus support for the project. Further, there are 31 municipalities which are members of the Metrowest Council -- meaning only 30 percent of the member municipalities voted in support of the project.
The final plan is expected to be issued in October.
The Illinois Department of Transportation issued its 2011-2016 Highway Improvement Program April 15, and it includes no funding for the Prairie Parkway. None. No mention. Nothing.
This is IDOT's spending blueprint for highway construction and maintenance over the next six years. Back in 2008, the Highway Improvement Program included $207.5 million for the Prairie Parkway. Dropping all funding is good news, but unfortunately it does not signal the end of the Prairie Parkway. Thus far, about $70 million in federal and state money has been spent on the Prairie Parkway (the state has to provide a 20 percent match for the federal funds). About 250 acres has been acquired for the project -- with land purchased as recently as January.
And there is still $165 million available in federal earmarks for the project -- money that may just prove too tempting for IDOT. That's why we must continue to focus on shifting those earmarked funds from the Prairie Parkway to improving Illinois 47 and local road projects like the Eldamain Road bridge and extension.
See the Highway Improvement Program (District 3) online.
Friends of the Fox River and Citizens Against the Sprawlway filed a lawsuit on March 25, 2009 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago against the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) for violating Federal law in how it approved the Prairie Parkway project.
In December 2005, just five months after he secured $207 million in federal funds for the Prairie Parkway, House Speaker Dennis Hastert sold 138 acres of land near the highway route, netting him a $2 million profit on land held for three years or less. See additional details in Prairie Parkway News Coverage and in a Report prepared by the Sunlight Foundation, a Washington DC based Congressional watchdog organization.
Another watchdog group on 2006 called for a Department of Justice investigation of Hastert's land dealings and highway "earmarks." See the details at the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington website.
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