Will Co. expressway plan pits highway vs. history
As the Interstate 355 southern extension was being built about 10 years ago, connecting Bolingbrook to New Lenox, Virginia Ferry watched as several buildings in its 12-mile path were demolished.
There were many old family farmsteads and the glamorous, sprawling 1950s stone ranch of Dr. Ray Kennedy, which some felt should have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places — but instead was cleared to make room for the interchange at Route 6 and Cedar Road in New Lenox.
Now, as lines are drawn on paper and computer screens for yet another highway that would run through Will County — the proposed Illiana Expressway — Ferry, chairman of the Will County Historic Preservation Commission, is working closely with the state to prevent something similar from happening again.
“I know we have to progress. But we have to save as much as we can,” Ferry said. “Unlike what happened with the construction of I-355, people who represent Illinois are coming to us and listening to us and are eager to hear what we have to say.”
The Illiana must comply with the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, which requires the Federal Highway Administration to consider the impact such a highway would have on historic properties.
The impact is not just from the 2,000-foot-wide concrete road and its interchanges, but the potential visual, noise and vibration impacts one mile north and south of it.
Within the swath of the projected path lie the Beecher Mausoleum, Peotone’s Rathje Mill, the old Route 66, many significant sites in Wilmington and the town of Symerton.
The historical analysis is one of many studies being done along the corridor, all of which will comprise the project’s Environmental Impact Statement.
“They will have to balance all kinds of factors — environmental, engineering, historical. It’s a huge balancing act,” said Curt Paddock, director of the Will County land-use department.
But while the state is willing to listen and weigh all these competing interests, it may be impossible to satisfy them all, he said.