Landowners Worry About Planned Illinois-Indiana Expressway
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Residents along the proposed highway linking Illinois and Indiana through Will County are anxiously waiting to see if lawmakers will give the state quick-take powers to snap up their land.
As WBBM Newsradio's Nancy Harty reports, legislation passed last year specifically banned the state from using quick-take powers for the proposed 47-mile route of the Illiana Expressway. That bill established the planned expressway as a public-private partnership, the Chicago Tribune reported.
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But a new bill in the Illinois State House of Representatives would reverse the earlier legislation, giving the Department of Transportation the right to seize private land in a quick-take fashion.
The state government is seeking to avoid a lengthy eminent domain court fight with farmers and homeowners, the Tribune reported.
But resident Judy Lucker-Mierzwa tells the Tribune the expressway plans are her and her husband's "own personal nightmare." Their house is in the direct path of the planned expressway.
Gov. Pat Quinn supports the expressway, which would cost $2.87 billion for the Illinois side alone, the Tribune reported. Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels says there is no guarantee whether the expressway will open, the newspaper reported.
Lucker-Mierzwa compares the planned expressway to the plan for the third Chicago area airport in Peotone, saying the state has no money for either project, yet both involve taking land away, the Tribune reported.
Concerns are also mounting in the town of Symerton in Will County. Most of the community, which has only 87 residents, would be wiped out by the expressway construction, the newspaper reported.
The Illiana would link Interstate 55 at Wilmington, Ill., to Interstate 65 close to Lowell, Ind.
