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Morris Daily Herald
January 24, 2003

IDOT looking at future need for Parkway

By Jo Ann Hustis-Herald Writer
jhustis@morrisdailyherald.com

MINOOKA — A fresh look at the area’s transportation needs is getting under way with the new Prairie Parkway engineering study.

The goal is to decide whether a need exists for the Prairie Parkway, the proposed north-south corridor between Interstate 80 and Interstate 88, noted Rick Powell, project engineer with District 3, Illinois Department of Transportation, Ottawa.

Details of the new study were released during an open house sponsored by IDOT at The Fountains of Minooka late Thursday afternoon. About 100 people attended the three-hour event.

Phase One will take an in-depth look at current and future transportation needs in the six-county area where development and traffic congestion are increasing.

The area includes Kane, Kendall, Grundy, DeKalb, Will and La Salle counties.

Powell said the study is separate and apart from the previous study, which concluded in recording of the Prairie Parkway Corridor.

“The purpose was to preserve a transportation corridor for future use, if it was needed,” he said.

Meanwhile, a need has not yet been established for that corridor, Powell noted.

“What we’re doing in this study is to look at the needs - that’s all we’re doing for the first year,” he said.

The needs study encompasses about 1,500 square miles, taking in all of Kendall County, southern Kane and western Will counties, northern Grundy County and the eastern halves of La Salle and DeKalb counties.

“We’re going to look at how the transportation network serves that area now, and get our best estimates of future population and traffic growth, land use and employment data,” he said.

“And see if the network we have in place now will handle those needs in 2030.”

Powell said IDOT does not now know where the problems will be, or whether the proposed Prairie Parkway is part of any solution the agency may devise.

“If we get through the needs analysis and don’t find the need, we can terminate the study,” he said. “If we do find a need, then our next step is to look at a range of alternatives.”

A new highway or a new alignment is one of may possible solutions, Powell said.

Others include expansion of existing roads, increasing public transportation and squeezing capacity out of the existing system, such as by signal timing to get traffic to flow better.

“We always have to look at the no-build alternatives in any study we do,” he said.

The need is defined by how the system is performing today and how it is expected to perform in the future.

“If there is extreme congestion in any part of the network, we know we have a problem. We all have our opinions on what the problems are, but we’re going to try to put some hard numbers to the problems,” he said.

Only when IDOT knows what the problems are, can the agency propose a solution to them, Powell added.

He said the Prairie Parkway Corridor protection study is “done and over with, and that the corridor is recorded - a reserve in case it’s needed in the future, and we’re looking at the need right now.”

“If we find a need, we still don’t know if the corridor is in the right place. The corridor is protected with our best information at the time, but it wasn’t as detailed a study as what we’re doing with this.”

Should IDOT find need for the corridor, it could be along Illinois 47, or as far west as along Illinois 23 in La Salle County, Powell indicated.

“The corridor could use part of the recorded Prairie Parkway Corridor and not the remainder,” he said. “It could use all, or part, or none of the recorded corridor.”

If IDOT finds all or part of the Prairie Parkway Corridor is not needed, the agency has a process in place that will remove that designation from the corridor and put it somewhere else where it is more appropriate, Powell said.

The proposed Brisbin Road interchange three miles west of Minooka on I-80 will have an influence on the new study, said Powell.

“It will influence traffic patterns, being another way for people to travel that they can’t go now,” he said.

The results of the new study will be released in a public report next winter.

Focus groups of community residents will take part in the study in helping solve specific problems or try to find answers to specific questions in their area of interest, said Powell.