State proposes a likely route for Metro East connector road
By Rick Pierce
Of the Post-Dispatch
Thursday, Nov. 04 2004
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The Illinois Department of Transportation has disclosed the likely route of a
highway that would link the Metro East cities of Troy and Columbia.

The highway, called the Gateway Connector, would avoid the Pines subdivision in
Columbia, swing around an environmentally sensitive area near Stemler Cave and
follow along much of existing Illinois Route 158 and the Scott Troy Road before
linking up with the Interstate 55/70 interchange in Troy.

The route, disclosed Wednesday morning at the department's headquarters in
Collinsville, would affect 600 individual land parcels along the 37 1/2-mile
stretch of the road.

Maps of the route will be filed with the recorders in Madison, Monroe and St.
Clair counties after a series of public hearings over the next few days. After
the maps are filed, property owners along the route will be required to notify
the state before making substantial improvements to their property. At that
point, the Department of Transportation could opt to acquire that particular
parcel.

What remains unclear is when - or if - the road will be built. Also uncertain
is whether the road would be a four-lane, divided highway like Illinois Route
255 or whether it would be a two-lane road.

The road, if it is built like Illinois 255, would cost about $500 million, said
Mary Lamie, the Department of Transportation's district engineer. No money has
been set aside for construction. And even if the money was provided now for the
project, it would take seven years before work could begin, she added.

Dozens of public hearings have already been held and more are planned. One was
held Wednesday afternoon. Another is planned from 4 to 7 p.m. today at the
Falls Conference and Reception Center, 300 Admiral Weinal Boulevard, Columbia.
A third is scheduled for next Wednesday.

The road has drawn plenty of opposition from a group known as Stop 158,
so-called because the road will follow existing Illinois 158 for much of its
route. Another group, the United Congregations of Metro East, has joined with
Stop 158 to try to block plans for the highway. The United Congregations is an
activist group of 26 churches.

District engineer Lamie said the highway was needed to accommodate growth in
the Metro East area and that it would be cheaper and less disruptive to do it
now.

"The growth is going to happen with or without the project," she said.

Substantial growth has occurred in the last quarter century along much of the
road corridor, particularly in Columbia, O'Fallon, Shiloh and Troy.

Stop 158 has pointed out that the Gateway Connector would contribute to sprawl
and that much of the growth in the Metro East area was due more to population
shifts than from growth.

"We haven't seen anything that convinces us the road is necessary," said the
Rev. Richard Ellerbrake, a spokesman for Stop 158.

In fact, the overall population of Madison, Monroe and St. Clair counties has
dropped since 1970, when the three-county area had 555,333 people. The latest
figures, from Jan. 1, show a total of 553,600.

The public hearings already held by the Department of Transportation have
prompted several changes aimed at accommodating property owners. For example,
one possible route would probably have taken out 17 homes in the Pines
subdivision, all of them in the $250,000 to $300,000 range, and would have
affected the value of other homes in the development.

In addition, plans for filing the corridor protection maps were delayed for
several months while a route was worked out to minimize the impact on the area
around Stemler Cave, located in western St. Clair County.