Cities around the world are realizing the need for additional airports to serve an increasingly travel-oriented population, not to mention growing global business. In the United States, one city that has again begun thinking about building a new airport is Chicago. Currently, the Midwest metropolis is served by two main airports: O’Hare and Midway. Now, a plan has been reintroduced to create a suburban airport that would not only facilitate more flight options, but also potential grow e-commerce in the Chicagoland area and potentially attract giants like Amazon. The proposal calls for a new airport in Peotone, a suburb about 44 miles south of Chicago. This proposal has been hotly debated for decades now.
In the latest Illinois state budget, Governor J.B. Pritzker included a $162 million allocation for infrastructure improvements in the area around the airport. This money would connect the I-57 freeway to the proposed site of the airport and cover the costs of an environmental review and the creation of a master plan for the new facility. The fact that the state is now willing to invest money in the airport suggests that it might actually be built. In addition, corporate support for the airport would likely be strong, given the boost that it could provide for e-commerce companies with large distribution centers south of the city. Politicians and business leaders seem to be coming together in support of the project as well.
The Potential Drawbacks and Benefits of an Airport in Peotone
At the same time, the plan still has a decent number of opponents, such as local environmentalists and farmers in the surrounding areas. These individuals point out that other regional airports still have capacity for more traffic, namely those in Rockford and Gary. Plus, the new airport would consume thousands of acres of land that could otherwise be devoted to agriculture. Speaking to the Chicago Tribune, the deputy director of the Environmental Law and Policy Center pointed out that the new airport would likely cause extensive development in the area and perhaps relocate people from South Chicago even further south, which would have a significant environmental impact. Even if this does not occur, the state would still have wasted hundreds of millions of dollars, in his view.
However, other people see the job creation as a clear positive and a way to keep the Illinois economy growing. Across the nation, e-commerce companies are looking for greater transportation and logistical support, and industry experts believe that many more airports will open to serve this need. A spokesman for the Illinois Department of Transportation told the Tribune that Chicago should be at the center of this new growth, especially given the tenuous economic situation in the city’s south side and surrounding suburbs, which were hit hard by the loss of the steel industry and other manufacturing jobs. In addition, the private sector has already expressed interest in getting involved and offering services through the airport.
Political Struggles Surrounding the New Airport Project
Politicians have been debating an airport in Chicago’s southern suburbs for decades. Plans to build the airport in Peotone were started in the 1980s, and the Illinois Department of Transportation officially started purchasing land in Will County for the airport in 2002. Currently, the state owns about 5,000 acres for the airport, which makes up the vast majority of the proposed 6,000-acre facility. The project stalled under former governor Bruce Rauner, who had little interest in pursuing it. This year’s budget, however, received support from dozens of mayors and lawmakers, including the speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives.
The major logistical hurdle that the airport now faces is a lack of transportation connectivity. The I-57 connection would solve this problem and remove one of the major barriers to carrying the plan forward. At the same time, there is still the question of connecting utilities to the site, which is in a rural location. Gas, water, and electricity lines must be built.
So far, no preliminary engineering or design work has been done to connect the site to I-57, though the plan currently centers on Eagle Lake Road south of the nearby town of Monee. Now that the state budget is in place, the upcoming multiyear plan should hopefully address these specifics.
Flights Potentially Starting from Peotone in Five Years
Advocates say that if all goes according to plan, flights could be leaving Peotone in five years. But the pushback against the airport is significant enough that the plan could still falter. Perhaps not surprisingly, Chicago Rockford International Airport is opposed to the project and has said that it has room to expand. Meanwhile, Gary International Airport is also focused on growth, while O’Hare has significantly boosted its cargo capacity in recent years and will add another 800,000 square feet of cargo processing space by 2021.
Supporters of the Peotone airport say that these airports still will not be able to keep up with the region’s growing air traffic. The Gary airport has little room to expand, for example, and significant expansion at Rockford could interfere with O’Hare traffic. One thing is certain, however: it will be fascinating to watch this project as it progresses.
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