Illinoisans want I-66; state plans to move forward

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Based on broad public support, Illinois officials on Tuesday announced their intentions to "aggressively move forward" to bring Interstate 66 through Southern Illinois to Cape Girardeau's new Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge.

The announcement on the proposed cross-country highway that would link California and Virginia comes after a June 17 public hearing in Ullin, Ill., and a 15-day period of public comment that saw 84 percent of the responses from Illinois residents supportive of an Illinois corridor.

"At the June meeting, there wasn't one voice. There were people on both sides," said David Phelps, assistant secretary of the Illinois Department of Transportation. "I didn't know what public opinion was. With these results, the clarity becomes obvious."

The announcement was made at a news conference at IDOT's Carbondale office.

Presented in a thick, blue book of comments that were collected by e-mail and letters and at the open house, 385 of 470 Illinois residents said an Illinois route would help the area's woeful economic situation by bringing in jobs and boosting tourism.

"One just has to travel through Mounds, Mounds City and Cairo to see they could benefit from any change," wrote Margaret Godfrey of Ullin. "... There is nothing in these small towns to make people want to visit them."

However, 59 Illinois people who turned in comments said they preferred a route that bypassed Illinois because it would hurt Southern Illinois environmentally, especially the Shawnee National Forest. They said they'd rather I-66 go through Western Kentucky.

Leslie Duram of Carbondale wrote in her letter that she strongly opposes this highway because it would create "ugly" urban sprawl like fast-food restaurants and gas stations.

"This hurts local business," she wrote, adding that she feels the "Cache River area is a valuable ecological region that need to be protected, not paved."

Illinois officials said they would plan an environmentally safe roadway that would take the national forest and other sensitive areas into account.

Now, Illinois officials hope to meet within the next 30 days with Kentucky highway officials, who are studying where the proposed interstate should be built. Kentucky is currently looking at a proposal that calls for I-66 to go through Western Kentucky into Missouri near Charleston, bypassing Illinois entirely.

"We've got to convince them we mean business," Phelps said after the conference. "We're sorry for our delay, if we've thrown a wrench in the works, but we now have to proceed according to what the citizens have said."

Recent interest

While the project is more than10 years old, Illinois had shown no interest until recently. Missouri and Kentucky highway officials have been actively studying possible routes for I-66 for about a year without any assistance from IDOT. Phelps said the new administration of Gov. Rod Blagojevich changed the state's stance.

"Because Illinois is a late participant -- we spent 12 years saying no -- we are barely getting in under the gun," Phelps said. "But now we recognize the value this could have to the economy."

Phelps wouldn't give specifics about economic impact. "But it's huge," he said. "It would involve every boost to the economy that you can imagine."

The question then came up about where Illinois would get the money to participate considering that Illinois, like many other states, is mired in budget shortfalls. The way federal projects like this work, Phelps said, is that the federal government provides 80 percent of the funds and the states provide 20 percent in matching money.

"We're in as good a shape as any of these states," he said. "Besides, I don't even know if any of that share would be needed in this governor's term."

Instead, all they would have to come up with is maybe $4 million or $5 million to study where the route should go -- an amount Phelps said the legislature could produce. He predicted that if everything went their way, I-66 likely wouldn't be built until 2015 at the earliest.

In the end, Phelps agreed it will all come down who best lobbies Congress, which has the final say about the route. Phelps noted that Illinois was working with Cape Girardeau in that department, specifically that the Cape Girardeau Area Industrial Recruitment Association is spending $30,000 to lobby Congress.

"We have to convince them that this is where the best route is," he said. "Show them that we can address the environmental concerns and get this interstate across the country."

smoyers@semissourian.com

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