The New York Times has an interesting sidebar on “State government proposals for spending transportation money from the federal stimulus law.” I clicked on Illinois just for fun. Not surprisingly, most of the money goes to Cook County. I scoured the document for Peoria County and found just two items:
| Route/Street | Location | Improvements | Est. Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| I 74 | W OF KICKAPOO-EDWARDS RD TO E OF I-474, Miles = 5.71 | RESURFACING, COLD MILLING | $9,180,000 |
| I 74 | KICKAPOO CREEK TRIB 0.7 MI W OF ILL 6 | CULVERT REHABILITATION | $60,000 |
Kind of disappointing, if you ask me. Why not use those millions to improve Route 40 between I-474 and I-74? They could use that money to construct a new entrance to the Eagle View area to make it more viable, remove the median near I-474 to make that commercial area more viable, and improve the Warehouse District area to allow more economic development to happen there. There are a lot more benefits to that project than resurfacing I-74, which would be done anyway regardless of the stimulus.