I-66 project study receives funding Union County included

Recently approved federal transportation grants for Illinois will include $3.6 million to help study and evaluate the most feasible route for a new road between Paducah and Cape Girardeau.

State Rep. Brandon Phelps, D-Harrisburg, announced the funding Tuesday for a road which has been designated as the Interstate 66 project.

I-66 surfaced as a topic of discussion at a Nov. 4 meeting of the Union County Board of Commissioners. The meeting was in Jonesboro.

"The I-66 project is part of the East-West Transamerica Corridor, a national transportation plan first studied in the 1980s that would start a 2,400-mile route from San Diego, California, and end in Norfolk, Virginia," Phelps said in a news release.

"Being able to move forward on this project will help create jobs and put Southern Illinoisans back to work, which is desperately needed during these tough economic times," Phelps said.

The legislator said the Illinois Department of Transportation, IDOT, is in the process of selecting a consultant to provide Phase I engineering services.

The services are required for the preparation on an anticipated Tiered Environmental Impact Statement, EIS, and supporting engineering reports for the eventual construction of a four-lane freeway or expressway from the Paducah/Metropolis region to the Cape Girardeau area.

Phelps said $4.5 million in funding has been approved to evaluate the most feasible route for the new road, which required a 20 percent match of $900,000.

The counties included in the study include Union, Alexander, Johnson, Massac and Pulaski.

The study is expected to begin late in the summer of 2012 and will take three years to complete.

The study will include environmentally sensitive areas such as the Cache River basin and the bluffs along the Mississippi River which are home to endangered plant and animal species.

Phelps said the study will be conducted under the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act.

The process will include several public meetings and gaining input from stakeholders in Southern Illinois, as well as Kentucky and Missouri.

Phelps quoted IDOT District 9 program development engineer Carrie Nelsen as saying that the funds will be available to the department in its next fiscal year, which begins on July 1, 2012.

"In early January we plan to select a consultant, meet with them on getting the scope of services and our plan of attack for this project all together and have contract documents and everything ready to be executed in July so they can actually begin working on the project in July," Nelsen stated.

Information about the I-66 project can be obtained by contacting Phelps' constituent office by phone at 618-253-4189 or Nelsen at 618-351-5280.

Union County officials heard input about the proposed I-66 project from a local resident who attended the Nov. 4 board of commissioners meeting.

The new highway is seen as a potential resource which could be used to create an economic hub in the region.

Commissioner Don Denny noted that the Union County Economic Development Corporation has a committee which is focusing on the I-66 project.