Crucial vote looms on Illiana Tollway

Nearly a year after backers of the proposed billion-dollar Illiana toll road won a crucial battle to drive the controversial project forward, another showdown looms this week.

Opponents hope to halt the effort to build the 50-mile, four-lane highway across southern Will County that would link Interstate 55 with I-57 and I-65.

Supporters tout the Illiana as a job-generating economic boon for the state’s fastest-growing county and its burgeoning intermodal freight facilities. Foes predict it will be the biggest boondoggle in state history, saddling taxpayers with $1 billion in costs while defiling farmland and the environment…Please click here to read Richard Wronski’s story in the Tribune.