It looks like authorities are slowly getting the green light to start building Chicago's third airport. Dubbed the South Suburban Airport, the site has been under development for over forty years now, but the city just submitted new plans for a runway that should start moving things further along.

The city has also started usurping land around Will County, to the obvious chagrin of the locals. They say that this new airport will alleviate much of the traffic that O'hare airport, the oft despised hub of United and American Airlines, has been subject to over the last half century. While Midway can do much of this, apparently their runways aren't large enough to accommodate all sorts of aircraft, namely those used frequently in international legs.

As far as location, Will County is a pretty far hike from the city center. If you remember your El cartography, O'hare and Midway are both positioned on the blue and orange lines respectively, making transfers from the city out to the airports relatively painless. The South Suburban would be even farther away than the Gary Airport (in Indiana), so you would have to budget more time and effort to get out there. It's kind of like the Dulles of Washington DC.

To connect the terminals to the city, a high speed rail service is thus part of the construct.

Planning still seems to be in its early stages, but you can read a ton of info on the Master Plan website. You'll find that their "Project Implementation" link is broken; maybe even they admit that construction is still a ways off.

You can read more about the proposed site and opposition at the wikipedia page, or read the airport website here.

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