Friday, November 8, 2002

Stuck in neutral

Long road ahead before Wikaduke Trail gets built

By Janet Prasad STAFF WRITER

For about 10 years, the Wikaduke Trail has been batted around as the solution to many of the area's present and future traffic problems.

Plainfield resident Jerry Taylor has personally witnessed the nightmarish traffic backups on routes 59 and 30 in Plainfield. He makes his opinions about the Wikaduke Trail known on a Web site he created about the proposed road, www.wikaduke.com

"The Wikaduke would be a real solution," Taylor said. "Everyone's fighting in the morning going to (Interstate) 55 and Route 59. It would take traffic off of both those roads for people going north and south during rush hours."

Taylor said the Wikaduke should be a tollway, which he believes would speed the construction process. But area officials would be happy just to see some movement toward creating the road.

The Wikaduke Trail would be a major four-lane highway connecting Interstate 88 with Interstate 80 just west of Plainfield. And while a list of municipalities and counties have signed on in support of the Wikaduke's construction, the project is still pending indefinitely.

"The Wikaduke Trail has a long, sordid history," said Francis Klaas, Kendall County engineer. "I don't think anyone has really been that aggressive in taking it on as their project, simply because it spans several counties, several municipalities and many jurisdictions. Taking one municipality and trying to do a regional route is difficult."

But as the area has grown up and out over the last 10 years, area officials have become more focused on getting the ball rolling on the Wikaduke. A strategic regional arterial study conducted by Plainfield and other area municipalities and counties, with some state funding assistance, recommended the eventual development of the four- to six-lane highway. The study was finished in 1998 and adopted by Plainfield and the other municipalities in 1999.

Plainfield's continuing growth emphasizes the need for a traffic solution. The village's largest subdivision, Grande Park, is starting to build out. And while it will take years before Grande Park is completely populated, it relies on the Wikaduke Trail running through it as the main transportation route for the residents of the 880-acre development. Considering how long it takes to get a major highway such as the proposed Wikaduke built, area officials are not wasting any time pushing the project.

Recently the Plainfield Village Board passed a resolution requesting state funding for a study that would provide a financing plan and impact fee plan for the road, a request that has also been made by Naperville, Aurora, Oswego, Joliet, Shorewood, Minooka and Channahon. Kendall, Will, DuPage, Kane and Grundy counties have also joined the group pushing for the Wikaduke.

"It is still in the planning stages, and frankly it just hasn't moved," said Terry Burghard, Plainfield's village administrator. Burghard added that political turnover in Springfield after the election may stall the process even longer, since the village and other municipalities need state funding help to do the work.

The state will likely not consider building the Wikaduke until the area can demonstrate a need for the road, Burghard said.

In the meantime, municipalities and counties have been working to set aside rights of way for the road as developments are approved along the proposed route. Piece by piece, Kendall County has been setting aside land for the road and asking for more money from developers to build the frontage along their developments, Klaas said.

Kendall County is also working to secure federal funding for phase one engineering and land acquisition for the road. Whether that funding will materialize is yet to be seen, Klaas said.

"We think it's going to be an important corridor for the future, and if we had the money we'd go out and do something," Klaas said. "But we don't, so we're doing what we can."