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Editorials
Motorists doomed to stop and go traffic : Editorials : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisMotorists doomed to stop and go traffic
| 9/6/2012
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We were disappointed last week to learn that federal officials had finally put the kibosh on plans to build the controversial Prairie Parkway expressway.
As originally proposed more than a decade ago, the Parkway would have linked I-88 and I-80. The 37 mile long expressway would have been routed south from I-88 in central Kane County into Kendall County between Yorkville and Plano and then angled southeast towards I-80 at Minooka.
Now instead, federal highway funds may be directed in coming years towards improving existing highways in Kendall County, including the long-planned widening of Ill. Route 47.
While the widening of Route 47 to five lanes will be welcome, it will not provide the limited access, north-south expressway that Kendall and Kane counties will need in the future.
The decision to scuttle the parkway effectively serves to doom future generations of motorists to driving in stop and go traffic along Route 47 from Yorkville north into central Kane County.
Given the opposition to the Parkway, it would have taken some political courage on the part of our area state and federal lawmakers to stand up and explain why the Parkway will be needed. Unfortunately, our lawmakers aren't much for political courage-especially in an election year. Instead, former U.S. Rep. Bill Foster, D-Naperville; State Sen. Chris Lauzen, R-Aurora; and U.S. Rep. Randy Hultgren, R-Winfield Township, all took the easy way out by opposing the Parkway.
The key proponent of the Parkway, former U.S. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, R-Plano, also gave project opponents major ammunition when it was revealed he had bought and then sold land at a huge profit not far from the route of the parkway. Hastert should never have become involved in such a deal.
As an alternate to building the Parkway, our lawmakers and others like the "Citizens Against the Sprawlway" group championed the widening of Route 47 as the solution to our region's long-term traffic woes.
Our question now to our short-sighted lawmakers and the others who opposed the Parkway is this: How many traffic signals will be on Route 47 between Yorkville and Sugar Grove by the time the state finally gets around to widening it to five lanes?
There are already 17 traffic signals along Route 47 between Ill. Route 71 in Yorkville and Bliss Road in Sugar Grove. That number is only going to increase in the coming years as development eventually returns to the Route 47 corridor. If anyone wants to get a look at what a widened Route 47 will be like, we suggest you drive Route 47 in Morris, U.S. Route 34 between Oswego and Aurora, or Ill. Route 59 between I-88 and Plainfield on any given day. All of three of these highways have been widened and improved since the mid-1990s to accommodate significant increases in traffic resulting from development, but traffic continues to back-up on these highways due in large part to truck traffic and the traffic signals required for public safety.
A limited access expressway for long-distance truckers and other pass through traffic is and will be needed through Kendall County and southern Kane County. Now, however, that need will not be met and area motorists-including today's Prairie Parkway opponents, their children and their grandchildren--will be left to consider that in the years ahead as they sit in traffic on Route 47 and wait for the next traffic signal to change. Someday they may wonder why there is so much truck traffic on Route 47 and why it takes nearly an hour to drive from the south side of Yorkville to Elburn.
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