JOLIET – About three dozen from the Fairmont community clashed with project leaders Thursday night over how a proposed new highway cuts through the heart of the town – all because of an endangered dragonfly.
“You’re destroying a community that’s growing,” De Harris, of Fairmont, told officials during an informational meeting at the Will County Office Building in Joliet. “Children. Families. Humans.”
The meeting centered around a long-sought plan to build a highway linking Caton Farm and Bruce roads to a new bridge over the Des Plaines River.
The selected route – known as the Middle Alignment – creates a 12-mile, four-lane road connecting Caton Farm Road at Route 30 to 159th Street and Cedar Road in Homer Township.
A new bridge would continue access southeast to Oak Avenue in Fairmont to avoid the habitat of the endangered Hines’ Emerald Dragonfly and the veer back north to Bruce Road and east to I-355.
Michael J. Matkovic, project manager with Christopher B. Burke Engineering, said many alternatives were considered over several years. Ultimately, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife restricted use of another viable option, Bruce Road, because of the dragonfly’s habitat.
“Here’s the reality, and this is the part of the job that I hate the most. If you have a project that’s going through the federal process, you have two options,” Matkovic said. “If one is going through a dedicated habitat of the Hines’ Emerald Dragonfly and the other is going through a home, then it’s going to go through that home.”
Supporters say the east-west route is needed to alleviate traffic congestion, while opponents Thursday said the route’s selection disproportionately displaces and affects a minority-heavy community of Fairmont.
George Malone, of Fairmont, said the route cuts straight through farmland just south of Oak Avenue.
“Let me say this. They put that road in, it’s going to cut off the area south of [Oak Avenue]. You’ve only got about four blocks and then you’re on the Joliet line. It’s going to separate them from Lockport. It’s going to be like a no man’s land,” Malone said, frustrated. “What’s the need for it? It’s not needed for the community itself.”
Matkovic said there has been a need for a new river crossing in the area since the 1970s. Building a new east-west corridor would relieve traffic congestion in the area, including along the Ninth Street bridge in downtown Lockport.
Since the plan was selected more than six years ago, there has been some turnover within the committee that initially approved it and opposition against the selected route has grown.
Nick Palmer, chief of staff for Will County Executive Larry Walsh, told residents the county “wants to work closely” with community members during the design phase to ensure the road is built to spur business development – which is badly needed in the economically depressed town of about 2,500.
“Let’s make this positive. We all want economic development and opportunities,” Palmer said.
Matkovic said he wants the community to be heavily involved, noting bike paths, sidewalks and landscaping could be part of the design.
“It’s good to get those wants and needs,” he said.
Terry Broadhurst, who owns property in Fairmont, said erecting noise walls is one potential component to the plan that could easily deconstruct any hopes of economic development in the community.
But he and residents said they hate the idea of dealing with noise and added traffic.
“We’ve got five blocks of road. For five blocks of road, you’re disrupting a whole community. Disrupting children. A school. Families that have been here for multi-generations,” Broadhurst said.
The meeting was organized Thursday by County Board members Annette Park, R-Crest Hill, and Lauren Staley-Ferry, D-Joliet.