Coalition working to create four-lane highway connecting area to St. Louis
<span style="font-weight: 400;">A wish list item 47 years old and counting is expected to get a boost on Friday as the Randolph County commissioners are expected to sign off on an intergovernmental agreement to support a potential four-lane highway from Waterloo to Pinckneyville.</span>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">A coalition of county officials, local mayors, Illinois Department of Transportation representatives and economic development coordinators from Jackson, Randolph, Perry and Monroe counties have been meeting to discuss the proposed route, which would follow Route 154 in Randolph County west to Sparta and connect with Route 3 at Red Bud.</span>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">To pay for the project, the coalition - which meets next on June 27 in Sparta - is hoping to tap into any federal dollars that may be made available as part of a push to include infrastructure projects in the federal transportation budget.</span>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">"We want to involve the public in this process now," said Marc Kiehna, coalition chairman and Randolph County commissioner, in a Wednesday news release. "Public input is paramount as we approach state and federal funding sources, and as soon as our local governments pass these resolutions, a necessary first step, we will hold open meetings to let our citizens say what they think.</span>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">"That is key to the success of this project."</span>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">In the news release, it was noted that the coalition hopes that a four-lane connection through the four counties "would provide a safe and efficient highway, create economic development opportunities, improve access to Southern Illinois University Carbondale, the World Shooting and Recreational Complex in Sparta and other regional destinations."</span>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">A four-lane highway through southwestern Illinois has been an on-again, off-again item on IDOT's back burner for decades. The agency previously published an environmental statement in April 1972 that identified the need for an interstate-type highway linking East St. Louis with Southern Illinois.</span>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">Part of IDOT's findings were based on an "Illinois Highway Needs and Fiscal Study" report - published five years earlier and commissioned by the Illinois Highway Study Commission - by engineering firm Wilber Smith and Associates.</span>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">The 1972 IDOT report discussed five possible "corridors" (Pinckneyville, Freeburg, Tilden, Chester and Steeleville) for a proposed highway system from Columbia to Carbondale.</span>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">The Herald Tribune will have more details and analysis on this story in its June 7 edition.</span>