Before the State of Illinois buys too much land around Peotone, maybe it should consult a map. The cornfields of Peotone are about 50 miles from O’Hare. Rockford is only 60 miles. And there is already a full-size airport there with one 10,000-foot and one 8,200-foot runway. Air-traffic control is in place; expressways are nearby.
A simple approach to the Chicago-area airport capacity issue could be handled by selecting the Greater Rockford Airport for No. 3. Rockford is not at the center of the metropolitan population. Transportation by high-speed train from Chicago would be needed. This could certainly be done more economically than starting over at Peotone.
Upgrading an existing facility isn’t nearly as exciting as starting from scratch, but taxpayers need to have their money spent wisely. Opportunities for Gov. George Ryan’s old Kankakee-area buddies to prosper on land speculation would be limited, but that’s not all bad.
