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Chicago Tribune
May 24, 2002
By Kevin Lynch
Tribune staff reporter
The state should take no further steps toward building a north-south expressway link between Interstate Highways
88 and 80 in the far western suburbs until studies show a need for the so-called Prairie Parkway, MarySue Barrett,
president of the Metropolitan Planning Council, said Thursday.
Even if detailed studies forecasting where people will live and work support the need for the corridor, Barrett
said, the project doesn't merit state funding among competing transportation projects.
Speaking at the Conservation Foundation's annual spring luncheon in Naperville, she said there are several projects
being considered by the Illinois Department of Transportation that will do more to further "smart growth"
for less money than the $1 billion Prairie Parkway corridor. Among them, Barrett said, are the O'Hare International
Airport bypass, the Elgin-O'Hare Expressway and the Elgin Joliet & Eastern rail corridor.
Barrett said protecting a corridor for the Prairie Parkway, which would be 400 feet wide and 33 miles long, "doesn't
even come close" to meeting the transportation investment criteria her organization uses to make its recommendations.
The council is an independent group that advocates balanced growth and development.
"Even at a surface-level review, the Prairie Parkway doesn't meet the straight-face test, and therefore it
shouldn't be chugging right along on the fast track," Barrett told some 200 activists and officials at the
luncheon.
IDOT spokesman Dick Adorjan said the agency does not routinely order economic or employment forecasts in highway
planning, but it does look at population growth trends to determine where new roads will be needed before gridlock
sets in.
"This project isn't on a fast track. In fact, we've already extended the period for public comment once,"
he said.
Because highway planning can take 10 years or more, Adorjan said, it's important to identify and protect lands
for the projects before they are lost to other development.
In Kane County, the Prairie Parkway has encountered vocal opposition from preservationists and officials who want
to see the corridor moved east of Illinois Highway 47. That alternative would serve the population already concentrated
in the county's more urban communities and help preserve its western farmlands, Barrett said.
When it initially unveiled plans for the Prairie Parkway in December, IDOT proposed the controversial western route,
but the final report from the agency's Ottawa office isn't expected until next month.