The new year will bring new challenges for St. Louis-area transportation, and continued debate over a half-billion-dollar plan to extend Illinois 158 into Madison and Monroe counties.
The Illinois Department of Transportation wants to build the Gateway Connector, a four-lane, 41-mile, 400-foot-wide corridor south of the Interstate 55-70 interchange near Troy that would extend west and eventually connect with Interstate 255 near Columbia, creating a loop around the eastern edge of the St. Louis metropolitan area.
According to a survey by the East-West Gateway Coordinating Council, Madison, St. Clair and Monroe counties are expected to have a combined population increase of 59,650 over the next 20 years. This increase is expected to have an adverse effect on the average daily traffic on county roadways.
The Gateway Connector project also has attracted developers' attention. Swansea developer Bruce Holland, president of Holland Construction in Swansea, said the plan is similar to the Interstate 255 project, which also runs through Madison, St. Clair and Monroe counties.
"I think it will provide great benefit to the cities it's going through," Holland said. "I think it would give some growth opportunities."
Homebuilders Association of Greater Southwest Illinois Executive Director Jerry Rombach said the new highway probably wouldn't attract much new housing, and potential growth would probably be more commercial in nature.
"It might not be prime residential ground, with a four-lane, divided interchange," Rombach said.
The project has been discussed and debated over the past five years. IDOT has stated that bringing the new highway extension to fruition would be a long process as the department continues to wait for funding and to proceed with project talks and further engineering.
"Legislators are working on the capital improvement bill, and we are always updating our multi-year program. There is opportunity, if money is available, to continue engineering efforts, but right now, land acquisition and engineering is not funded," IDOT Location Studies Engineer Cindy Stafford said.
A grassroots movement of citizens living around the area that would be impacted by the proposed highway have fought the project. The group, known as Stop158: Citizens for Smart Growth, said no capital budget has passed at this point to provide necessary funding.
"When it is passed, it's not going to have enough money for everything, that's for sure," group spokesman Richard Ellerbrake said.
Ellerbrake said he and others are not trying to stand in the way of progress -- they just believe state transportation dollars should go toward road and bridge improvements and maintenance. In at least one case, the state transportation department has responded.
"We've been advocating for several years that intersection (at Illinois 158) can be improved by adding longer turn lanes in all directions, and they finally are going to do that," he said. "That project deserves our money. We're not in favor of no money for improvements, just selected improvements."
The department's proposed extension cuts right through Annette and Lew Haines' 268-acre farm in rural Troy. According to tax records, the land initially was granted by the Louisiana Purchase and has remained untouched. They're not anti-progress, Annette Haines said, they just want to promote smart growth.
"It would be fine if they widened the (existing) road ... instead of plowing over virgin land into an interstate," Annette Haines said.
The Haineses are two of more than 1,000 citizens engaged in the Stop158 group and have signed a petition protesting the project.
Despite the outspoken opposition, Stafford said many citizens support the project.
"I
think the supporters don't get as much coverage in the press as
opposing groups," she said, "but that hasn't stalled
the progress."