Saturday, May 27, 2006

It's About Concrete, Silly

So, O’Hare Airport’s $15 billion expansion is in trouble and is going to cost more than city officials predicted.

Ho, hum.

Opponents have been predicting that for years.

Right after the plan was announced, WTTW had a panel discuss it. One of the proponents was Lester Crown of Material Service fame. Material Service, as in, “We sell gravel.”

There may be more of McHenry County in Cook County than in McHenry County, thanks to Material Service and other gravel pit owners.

Now, last Thursday's Daily Herald’s editorial asks,

Will this plan fly?
It’s first paragraph is
"The reason — the only reason — to expand O’Hare Airport is to substantially increase the airport’s capacity and reduce its delays in a cost-effective manner."
To say there is some doubt is a substantial understatement.

As the Daily Herald concludes:
"Some observers have suggested another course and say that adding one runway and extending an existing runway would significantly reduce delays at much lower cost. It is time, before the city goes further down the uncertain path it is on now, to fully analyze this and perhaps other options in an open-minded search for the most cost-effective modernization of this vital airport."
Could former U.S. Senator Peter Fitzgerald have been right…again?

I wish Daily Herald Jack Mabley were still with us so he could write an “I told you so” column for the Daily Herald. He convinced me that this mega-expansion of O’Hare was unnecessary, as was the Peotone Airport.

Mabley argued that Gary’s airport would work quite find, thank you. It’s 35 minutes from the Loop, but in another state, of course.

But Chicago/Illinois politicians can’t control the contracts there, can they?

It’s really all about concrete.

Also posted at McHenry County Blog.

6 comments:

Anonymous,  10:11 PM  

WE SHOULD OPEN A BOYSTOWN AIRPORT BECAUSE THAT IS THE MOST FUN PLACE IN CHICAGOLAND AND ILLINOIS!!!!!

Bill Baar 10:13 PM  

What about Rockford with a rail connection to O'Hare and the city.

The tracks are already there.

Cal Skinner 7:27 AM  

The tracks will require major upgrading. It's a freight line now.

And, then there is the question of whether the RTA would run it. If so, I would think that Boone and Winnebago Counties would be given the opportunity to pay an extra 1/4 of 1 cent sales tax, just like we collar county folks.

Anonymous,  9:22 AM  

I thought Daley actually did control at least part of Gary through the Chicago-Gary Regional Airport Authority Compact that was signed back in 1995 by Dale and then Gary Mayor Barnes. Many of the Executive Directors and Trustees of the Authority have been Daley people, John Harris, Barbara Lumpkin, etc.

Anonymous,  12:08 PM  

O'Hare is a boondoggle to the taxpayers

Anonymous,  5:40 PM  

And yet a smaller boondoggle than Peotone.

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