News

Prairie Parkway Sets New Route

On June 1, the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) announced that they have selected Alternative B5, which includes the widening of Illinois Route 47, as the preferred alternative for the new Prairie Parkway, a highway the agency says will reduce traffic congestion and offer access to local jobs.

The route, estimated to cost around $955 million, will add 37 miles of new four-lane freeway from an interchange at I-80 west of Minooka, north to an interchange at I-88 near Kaneville. The plan also includes expanding IL-47 to four lanes between I-80 and Caton Farm Road to the north.

IDOT conducted a five-year study to evaluate issues related to the parkway. “There were over 60 items of environmental concern that were measured,” says IDOT engineer Rick Powell. “However, the study’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement includes plans for mitigation. In fact, we’ve already reduced the impact on wetlands to less than three acres. This is a remarkably low number for a project including 37 miles of freeway and 12 miles of arterial highway widening.”

Environmental groups opposed to the project maintain that IDOT underestimates the impact of the parkway. Big Rock Creek, a Class A waterway, for example, would be crossed twice by the route and paralleled for about a mile. Forested areas along it contain the only two known populations of rock elm in the state.

Jan Strasma, chairman of Citizens Against the Sprawlway, adds that the plan will displace 2,500 acres of farmland, spur development in areas designated as agricultural, degrade the Fox River and Aux Sable Creek, and damage 57 jurisdictional wetlands. “Improving the existing highway network instead of building the Prairie Parkway,” says Strasma, “would have a much smaller impact on the environment.”

However, with an estimated population growth of 500,000 in the study area by 2030, IDOT says the creation of the B5 freeway is crucial. Close to $220 million in state and federal funds have been secured to date, and parkway land acquisition could begin as early as 2008, with construction starting in 2009. The Record of Decision, expected later this year, would provide federal authorization for IDOT to proceed, and the Final Environmental Impact Statement should also be complete by that time.

— Divina Baratta