PEKIN, Ill. -- The highway that's supposed to link the end of Illinois Route 6 south of Chillicothe and I-74 East of Peoria is again moving forward...slowly.
If the interchange at the end of Illinois route 6, seems incomplete, it's because it is. The end of the road is supposed to keep going all the way to I-74 in Tazewell County.
"It'll open up the county to the Washington area. It's hard to get there now. It's hard to get, for anybody, from the south of the county, you have to try to get there now. This will open up Washington to the rest of the 100,000 people in Tazewell county to go a shopping there," said Greg Sinn of Tazewell County Board for District 2.
The project is already more than 40 years old.
Mike Lewis, IDOT's Project Engineer for the Eastern Bypass, said, "This project has been in the works for several years. It dated back to an early eastern bypass, or the East Peoria bypass from 1968. And since that time there's been different versions of it. Moving forward is the important part, finding out where the best place for the roadway would be."
Maps were displayed showing the places where the road could potentially be built.
Any government project that involves land acquisition means that the land has to come from somewhere. And if you live in one of the gray shaded areas on one of these maps, it's time to pay attention. Because the land they use could be yours.
If the state decides to build on your property, you'll be offered a sale price. If you can't agree on a number, the purchase is forced through a process called "Eminent Domain." But one board member said it's not time to panic yet.
"Stay calm, you know. We're gonna go from six options, they're gonna go down to three or two options. And as they do that, quite a few of the people who are in the gray area now are going to be moved out of the gray area. And when to the point we get down to two, three; that's when I think the conversations get more serious," said John Ackerman of Tazewell County Board member for District 3.
The project's web site is: www.easternbypass.com
You can look at the individual maps for each of the six proposed corridors and get comment forms here: http://www.easternbypass.com/get_involved/PublicMeeting3.aspx
And clicking "Meeting Materials" at the bottom of the page.
Information on land acquisition and eminent domain here: http://www.easternbypass.com/BigPicture.aspx
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