Macomb, IL – The preferred alignment for the Illinois 336 Macomb to Peoria highway will soon be set. The final public hearing was held before the last environmental impact statement is drafted.
Tom Lacy is the Studies and Plans Engineer for the Illinois Department of Transportation. Lacy says the next step will be to address any comments that were made at the public hearing and make any necessary changes. "We will prepare the final environmental impact statement and submit that for review," says Lacy. "After that we'll get design approval."
"From there we can start phase two, which is contract-print-plan preparation," says Lacy. "Right now, for phase two, we have a program from Hanna City to the 474 connection at Maxwell Road. We have soils from Canton to the Maxwell Road Connection. That's all we have right now for phase two. We don't have anything for land acquisition or construction."
Lacy says some of the environmental impacts include residential and commercial property displacement, wet lands, and farm land. "The environmental impact statement basically covers every impact of the footprint the alignment has involved with it," says Lacy. "It covers everything that the project has an impact on."
This was not the first public hearing on the issue. "In 2004 was several different alignments," says Lacy. "In 2007 was what we thought would be the preferred alignment. Since then we've taken those comments and made 30 different revisions."
Lacy says the highway is a four-lane expressway. "It's similar to the expressway from Macomb to Monmouth," Lacy says.
The estimated cost of the construction is more than $705-million. "We don't really have an idea on funding," says Lacy. "It'll take a lot of federal money and some state money."