Channahon celebrates Illiana decision
By Jeanne Millsap For The Herald-News October 22, 2012 10:10AM
Maps
Updated: October 23, 2012 4:27PM
CHANNAHON — There was cause for celebration at last week’s village board meeting, as Village President Joe Cook announced a victory.
“The Illiana Expressway A3S2 corridor is not a recommended corridor,” Cook told trustees. “It is off the table.”
Cook said state Sen. Pat McGuire, D-Joliet, notified him that the option for the western terminus of the expressway, which was proposed to begin at Bluff Road and Interstate 55 in Channahon, was now no longer being considered by the Illinois Department of Transportation as a viable option.
IDOT has confirmed that the Illiana’s western terminus will be near Wilmington.
The Channahon option was one of the three top contenders for the western beginning of the proposed expressway that aims to connect I-55 to I-65 near Lowell, Ind.
A grass-roots campaign to defeat the proposed site was taken up by residents of the village, some of whom would have been displaced from their homes. Up to 40 houses in the Fairhaven Heights and Rolling Acres subdivisions were likely to have been bought out by the state should IDOT have chosen the Channahon location.
Of all the routes that were being considered, Cook said, the Channahon terminus would have involved the greatest destruction of homes and would have closed off one of only two village access points to the interstate.
“There was a big community outreach,” Cook said, “and we believe we told the right story … Working with a grass-roots effort coupled with our strategy of reaching out to all the decision-makers really paid off. ”
