Prairie Parkway: A road to nowhere?

I think the whole project should be forgotten, If anything widen
Rt# 47 and be done with it, And also after Hastert' had his pet project ok'd he then up and moves to barrington Il far away fro mall this??? I as a Minooka resident loathe the whole idea!!!!
I don't want to move from here or face eminent domain...Widen Rt# 47 and be done with it!!!

Kathy said "As to 47, the whole dirty secret in widening & fixing that is to develop it."

You are right, developers are probably licking their chops at the prospect of a widened 47. Thus my comments earlier to the lady who said she wanted 47 widened instead of a sprawlway. She just wants a different sprawlway.

Good riddens to the Prairie Pathway and the one who stuffed this pork down our throats while he was stuffing his pockets.

How long did it take to "finish" I-355? Almost forever and at a huge cost increase over what it would have taken if done when the rest of the road was built. Hastert and pals probably were making money on the deal but the highway is needed. Fixing Rt. 47, fixing bridges, and developing other roads is needed too. Complete the highway now while there is money and Foster can go out and fund his own pork projects.

With current available funding, Idot will only be able to build a small section of the road. The section they plan to build is only 5 miles long and will span the Fox River connecting rt. 34 and rt. 71. Hastert earmarked $207 million for the road. Before this money can be accessed, the State of Illinois must match it with an additional $52 million. Just building the initial 5 mile section of the Prairie Parkway will require all of these funds, and that assumes that the project comes in on budget. Future funding for the road is doubtful - especially with Hastert out of office. If redirected to other projects, the same money can widen 47 through Yorkville, and create two new north south roads in the area - Eldamain and WiKaDuKe trail. In the area they call this the "47 plus" plan. It is a much better use of the available money and will reduce traffic congestion in the area far more than a 5 mile highway stub. The Prairie Parkway is a waste of tax payer money.

I think Obama is spending more than a billion to find out what makes cows moo. Well, that was just a joke, but the 9.7 trillion Obama has handed out in 100 days is no joke.

http://video.google.com/videoplay...

I just *love* these liberals who think they know better than everyone else and want to control our lives. I don't know if you've been around for the last 100 years or so, but we are in a car world. One of the great things about America is freedom. Cars give us freedom. The cars will stay. You libs who want to just "improve" current roads are not interested in solving any of the current problems. You talk about high speed rail... How will we get to the rail hubs? We'll be stuck in traffic and miss our trains. You talk about the STAR line. It would be great... but it ain't gonna happen. CN owns the line now. And even if it did happen... how will we get to the station? We'll be stuck in traffic and miss our train. And while it will improve some arterial travel north to south from suburb to suburb, it will not take hundreds of thousands of cars off of 355. But you're right, it is needed (as is high speed rail).
The Prairie Parkway is absolutely a needed project, as is the 53 extension, as is a completion of the Elgin-Ohare. These all will move people to where they are going. And, to be honest, many of these expansion projects people have talked about are needed too. The infrastructure has not kept up with the expansion... and lots of work needs to be done to get it up to snuff. The upgrades of 294 and 88 are a huge start. The technology of today is vastly better than the technology of the 50's when they were built, which means they will be more expensive (they would have been anyway due to higher property values, material costs, and inflation) but they will also last longer.
But I digress... the traffic in the area around the proposed Prairie Parkway will become like Lake County is now if they don't build this highway. People say that there is such a dramatic environmental impact with highways over expanded logjams, er, widened arterials. But they also are convinced that our cars are increasing global warming (another farce). Wouldn't it be better if we WEREN'T STUCK IN TRAFFIC?! A car idling for an hour has to have tons more emissions than a car driving for half the time. Arterials have stoplights... which causes congestion. It is inefficient for gas mileage and takes lots more time. Highways provide constant travel and thus lower travel times. Sometimes the highways are congested... but if you look at the places where congestion occurs, it is because the capacity is not high enough.
It's amazing that so many people opposed to this aren't from the area. They're the ones taking pot shots at people in Plainfield and Naperville. Sounds like they're jealous that they aren't as well off to me...

Everyone likes to rip a highway plan, its easy fodder from all sides of the "self-experts". Until cars & trucks are retired as the most accessible forms of transportation and population density is such that local mass transit in Kendall County is sustainable, Illinois should continue to develop improved opportunities to improve its highway infrastructure. Regardless of who got the money appropriated, it's a strategic view of where the needs are going to be occurring in the next 25 years.
While its easy to blame the roads for "sprawl", one must also look at zoning, commercial tax abatement, cheaper housing, lower property taxes, these are all drivers for people to want to relocate farther from the urban or suburban core to the ex-urban.
So rather than put up noise or blocks to something that has collective merit, objectors should be trying to make good of the situation by trying to enhance the delivery of the plan. Bike trails, future transit space in the ROW, nature parks for rest stops, visually pleasing architecture for the bridges and overpasses. So when we are 6 feet under our grandchildren can take our work and extend it for the use of future methods of transportation and recreation.

Get from Point A to B wrote:

I just *love* these liberals who think they know better than everyone else and want to control our lives. I don't know if you've been around for the last 100 years or so, but we are in a car world. One of the great things about America is freedom. Cars give us freedom. The cars will stay. You libs who want to just "improve" current roads are not interested in solving any of the current problems. You talk about high speed rail... How will we get to the rail hubs? We'll be stuck in traffic and miss our trains. You talk about the STAR line. It would be great... but it ain't gonna happen. CN owns the line now. And even if it did happen... how will we get to the station? We'll be stuck in traffic and miss our train. And while it will improve some arterial travel north to south from suburb to suburb, it will not take hundreds of thousands of cars off of 355. But you're right, it is needed (as is high speed rail).........

I speak as a conservative who realizes that advocating for such a project is no less an imposition on other as those who are opponents of the project. You want to lower taxes yet building sprawl further outward (sprawl is EXTREMELY tax inducing). It may be a car world but it is not a God given right to further build roads where they don't make sense or against all other major considerations other then ones self-entitled right to feel free to drive unimpeded over every square foot of Gods green earth. It is not incumbent for the rest of society to build you roads, pipes, and infrastructure so you can live in a 4,000 prefab house on the outskirts where it should be agricultural and woodlands which will only be more and more valuable in the future.
Freedom? Freedom is knowing that we are not producing more auto miles traveled that substantially enrich religious radical nutter or socialistic demagogues in Latin America who hate us. THAT is preserving freedom.
Considering the amount of funding that road expansion has gotten over the past thirty years to cry poor me and that roads are getting the shaft seems a bit thick headed. Not building a tollway doesn't mean that you will not be able to drive to a train station as you disegenlously suggest. As far as the STAR Line goes I hope it also gets rejected or at least far pushe down as the plan is ill thought out and will not to success given the whole enviroment it traverses is completely auto-dependant.

Thomas wrote:

<quoted text>
......I have a friend who just moved out to dekalb because she got a new home for under $200,000. Yeah she has an hour and a half commute now but she didn't one to try to raise 3 kids in a two bedroom condo in a close in suburb. Some people want to actually live in a nice house. Have you ever tried to raise kids in a condo? I think you have missed the mark, its not the roads that cause the sprawl, its the cost of real estate. That is why people move farther and farther out from the city center. When I worked in New York city there were people that commuted all the way from Pennsylvania because of the insane cost of real estate anywhere close to the city center.

So for her family she moved in order to get a bigger place even though that means substantially less time every day with her family. I hope those 14 foot ceilings and 1,000 ft. basement give children a lot of love and attention. I respect your friends choice as there is hard give and take in all choices but one can't have their cake and eat it too all the time.

....Yes, roads build sprawl because they artificially lower the cost of moving to such a development on the greater society through taxes. The biggest reason for the issue of high real estate prices happen because demand is artificially greatly lowered by NIMBY's in the city and inner ring suburbs who want to keep their prices artificially high. Push to get areas in those locales upzoned to have higher density around TOD's (which is essentially a method which is a positively cheap tactic to lower real estate prices) and don't suggest the solution is for the rest of us to subsidize your living out in the boonies.

Karl wrote:

With current available funding, Idot will only be able to build a small section of the road. The section they plan to build is only 5 miles long and will span the Fox River connecting rt. 34 and rt. 71. Hastert earmarked $207 million for the road. Before this money can be accessed, the State of Illinois must match it with an additional $52 million. Just building the initial 5 mile section of the Prairie Parkway will require all of these funds, and that assumes that the project comes in on budget. Future funding for the road is doubtful - especially with Hastert out of office. If redirected to other projects, the same money can widen 47 through Yorkville, and create two new north south roads in the area - Eldamain and WiKaDuKe trail. In the area they call this the "47 plus" plan. It is a much better use of the available money and will reduce traffic congestion in the area far more than a 5 mile highway stub. The Prairie Parkway is a waste of tax payer money.

If you are correct and they are only going to build a 5 mile roadway, what a waste? Look at the Elgin Ohare expressway it goes for what 5 miles. Why did they build it if it goes thropugh Schaumburg only? If this new road only has enough funding for that small section forget it use the money where it can do good fixing the exusting roadways and infrastructure, not a build a road to nowhere

Buy the land while it's cheap!

If Kendall needs PP so bad, let them increase gas taxes and license plates to pay for it. Thats how the Las Vegas beltway (I-215) was built. Or have the county sell bonds and wait for gas taxes to grow. Otherwise 120,000 people of Kendall can wait in line for funding like everyone else.

mikea wrote:

<quoted text>
If you are correct and they are only going to build a 5 mile roadway, what a waste? Look at the Elgin Ohare expressway it goes for what 5 miles. Why did they build it if it goes thropugh Schaumburg only? If this new road only has enough funding for that small section forget it use the money where it can do good fixing the exusting roadways and infrastructure, not a build a road to nowhere

You've obviously never had to drive daily from west of Schaumburg to I-290.

They built the E-O while we were living in Streamwood, and it cut my commute by a half hour each way.

Ken in Aurora wrote:

<quoted text>
You've obviously never had to drive daily from west of Schaumburg to I-290.
They built the E-O while we were living in Streamwood, and it cut my commute by a half hour each way.

The Elgin Ohare may have its merits, but the Prairie Parkway, as planned, only amounts to a new bridge across the Fox River. It will cost at least an addditional $800 million to fund the rest of the road. At the same time, Kendall County is planning a new bridge in the same area. The counties new bridge will be less than a half mile from the Prairie Parkway and is part of the Eldamain Rd. extension which is expected to be a major north south road through the area.

By the way, when this project was first pitched it was not expected to be needed for 20 years. Hastert surprised everybody when he earmarked funds for the road. Prior to that, when Idot officials talked about the Prairie Parkway they always talked like it was in the distant future. Their goal was to preserve the land so that the road could be built if needed. Several years ago, Idot created a corridor protection map that prevents development of the land needed for the highway. Idot has accomplished their goal. In the future, if there is need, the land will be available to build the road. In the meantime, the available funds can be used more efficiently, and bring real improvements to the area. A five mile highway stub is not the answer.

I live in the Fox Valley a few miles from R47. Route 47 , there is a need to have a multi-lane highway out west for north/south travel.Just as I-290 and I-355 were needed as the suburbs expanded in the past. Currently the only way to travel north or south is main thoroughfares like R47. Although this is very important, the biggest need is for more bridges across the Fox River. Some towns have only one bridge to cross the river. I remember a few years back, when the Des Plains river flooded and their was only a few roads that crossed it on the Northwest side. This caused delays that made the news. Now just imagine this is how we in the Fox Valley live everyday. Between North Aurora and Aurora their is 4 miles between bridges and St. Charles and South Elgin you have to drive 7 miles to find a bridge to cross. This causes many bottle necks in every town.

martiniduck wrote:

I live in the Fox Valley a few miles from R47. Route 47 , there is a need to have a multi-lane highway out west for north/south travel.Just as I-290 and I-355 were needed as the suburbs expanded in the past. Currently the only way to travel north or south is main thoroughfares like R47. Although this is very important, the biggest need is for more bridges across the Fox River. Some towns have only one bridge to cross the river. I remember a few years back, when the Des Plains river flooded and their was only a few roads that crossed it on the Northwest side. This caused delays that made the news. Now just imagine this is how we in the Fox Valley live everyday. Between North Aurora and Aurora their is 4 miles between bridges and St. Charles and South Elgin you have to drive 7 miles to find a bridge to cross. This causes many bottle necks in every town.

The "47 Plus" plan, which Foster supports, will create 2 new north south connector roads - Eldamain and WiKaDuKe trail. Eldamain will include a bridge crossing the fox River. Widening rt. 47 to 4 lanes from Sugar Grove through Yorkville is also part of this plan. Yorkville has also planned for a local bridge over the Fox about a mile west of rt. 47. The money Hastert earmarked for the Prairie Parkway would be better spent on these projects. Idot has been planning on widening rt. 47 through Yorkville longer than they have been planning the Prairie Parkway. Even though a great deal of money has been spent planning the Prairie Parkway, Idot recently said it is not a "shovel ready" project.

Wikaduke trail - isn't that Eola Road? It will be even more fun to drive when they finish that connection to I-88. If these towns keep growing for the next 40 years, all these local roads will be clogged, whether they are widened or not. Unless everyone stops driving cars by then.