480 million

Developers’ Desires Dictate Unneeded Road

Proposal and Savings
Deny funding for the proposed Peoria to Chicago Highway and accompanying Eastern Ring-Road around Peoria. Estimates for the project range from $600 million to $1 billion, including $398 million for the Eastern Ring-Road — 80 percent federally funded.

Background
Peoria area development interests want a four-lane highway from Peoria to either I-55 or I-80, both of which run to Chicago. The Eastern Ring-Road would be a four-lane highway from southeastern Peoria connecting to the Peoria to Chicago Highway. Peoria drivers currently can choose between several two- and four-lane highways to reach interstate routes to Chicago.

Status
The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) has completed a corridor study for the Eastern Ring-Road and chosen the B-5 corridor, which would destroy 440 acres of farmland, 261 acres of wooded area, 45 homes, 2 businesses, and a church at a cost of $398 million.

Problems with the project

Taxpayer Concerns
Federal taxpayers should not pay for a road that is motivated by the economic developments desires of local businesses, rather than transportation needs. As the Peoria Journal Star has editorialized about the project, "The Illinois Department of Transportation normally lets transportation needs — traffic counts, access and safety — determine where it puts highways. The case for the Peoria-Chicago link rests on economic development, and that’s a tougher sell."

Finally, IDOT justifies construction of the Eastern Ring-Road to handle traffic from "a potential new highway linking Peoria to Chicago" — a road that has not been built.

Local Community Concerns
The County Boards and Farm Bureaus for both Woodford and Livingston Counties, as well as District 50 Schools and the City of Washington, oppose the project due to its negative impact on communities and farmland. Project proponents promote the highway as a source of economic growth. But more than 13,000 local residents have signed petitions opposing the project, arguing that it would have little economic benefit, while physically dividing their communities, and stunting residential growth.

The project would take needed money away from maintenance of existing roads, many of which are in disrepair, and the badly needed reconstruction of I-74.

Environmental Concerns
The project would increase noise, air and garbage pollution and harm wildlife by fragmenting its habitat. The corridor for the Eastern Ring-Road would endanger federally protected plants and grasses, destroy family farms — some 75 to 100 years old — and exacerbate an existing storm water flooding problem.

Contacts
Larry Schaer, Communities Against Ring-Road Encroachment, (309) 698-4889.