Southern Illinois on I-66 - Bring it on

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- When it comes to Interstate 66, most Southern Illinois residents have only one thing to say:

Bring it on.

That's what surveys taken by the Illinois Department of Transportation revealed. IDOT officials held a media conference this morning in Carbondale to announce the results of a June 17 open house, aimed at collecting public comment, and show those comments to journalists.

About 450 people attended the June open house, and hundreds more sent comments by mail. Of those collected from Southern Illinois residents, 385 supported I-66 running through their communities, 59 preferred it to go through Western Kentucky straight into Missouri about 30 miles south of Cape Girardeau and 22 said they oppose it altogether.

IDOT also received strong support from Cape Girardeau for a Southern Illinois route.

But the survey revealed the growing battle between Cape Girardeau and the rest of Southern Missouri over where I-66 will go. Of comments collected from Southern Missouri, 173 said they don't want the route to go through Illinois, none wanted it to go through Illinois and three opposed the project altogether.

IDOT assistant secretary David Phelps said Illinois will let its intentions known to Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, the lead agency on the project. IDOT will move forward with planning, including trying to find the best economically viable and environmentally safe route.

I-66 is a plan to run a traffic corridor that connects the east and west coasts.

Read the full story in tomorrow's Southeast Missourian and on semissourian.com.