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Will Chicago get an airport on the South Side?
In May, I'm flying into Chicago. My friends live in Bolingbrook, a suburb to the south about 35 miles from downtown. According to Map Quest, it will take me 54 minutes to get to their house. I'm thinking, if I'm lucky. Traffic through Chicago can be a nightmare. This summer we drove right by downtown at 1:00 in the morning and traffic was still heavy, so heavy that we missed a toll booth lane and had to send our $1.35, or thereabouts, in the mail.
In his column in the New York Times today, Bob Herbert outlines the plan in the works for a new airport in Chicago to be built on the South Side. There are stumbling blocks to such a plan. Politics for one. What interests me is the number of jobs an airport produces, both during construction and afterward. The number is well into the thousands.
From Herbert's description airports sound like beehives of activity. As he points out, O'Hare has grown to be so massive that it's unwieldy at times. Although, according to O'Hare's Web site, it was voted the Global Traveler Award for Best Airport in North America in 2007. Herbert also points out that Midway's runways are short which poses another problem.
The airport on the South Side makes sense to me. It would sure make getting to Bolingbrook much easier. Possibly it could help lessen traffic through downtown by people who had to head further north in order to fly out of town.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Barkin Mar 17th 2009 2:17PM
If all indicators seem to be suggesting a decline in air travel over the next several years, why does it make any sense for Chicago to have a third airport?
jonathanwthomas Mar 17th 2009 3:34PM
There already is a southside airport. It's called Gary International Airport. It's less than 45 minutes from Downtown Chicago and can handle larger airliners. Parking is free, not wait times in the terminal, easily accessible right off the toll road. The problem is that the airlines won't commit to it, every one that has has gone bust. It won't hit critical mass until a major airline uses it. And the City of Chicago won't support it as Chicago's Third Airport because it's not in Chicago. It wouldn't get a piece of the tax revenue from it. Also, downstate Illinois politicians won't support it because they all bought land down at Peotone which is the anointed place for a third airport. Building an airport anywhere else is a waste of money and resources where money should be invested in Gary Airport to increase capacity and encourage a major airline to use it.
Ben Mar 18th 2009 12:03PM
Jamie,
Your misunderstanding of the issue is a perfect example of how ridiculous this boondoggle is. This proposed airport is in PEOTONE, IL. To keep in line with your MapQuest preference, I did a search of my own: From Peotone, IL to Bolingbrook, IL is 48 miles and 54 minutes without any traffic. However, a search from O'Hare to Bolingbrook, IL is 30 miles and 40 minutes without any traffic.
The point here is that while a third airport may be useful for the Chicago area, the Peotone project would be a complete and utter waste of taxpayer money with absolutely no benefit to anyone except the cronies who have already bought up the currently cheap land in Peotone so they can sell it to the state if the airport is built. It is extremely misleading to use the term "south-side airport" for this Peotone project because it tricks people like yourself into thinking that it will be a convenient alternative for the south suburbs of Chicago. As I've shown you, O'Hare is still closer to many south suburbs than Peotone. Simply take a look at a map. You will see that Peotone is 10-15 miles south of even the furthest suburbs of Chicago!
Wm Jul 31st 2009 12:28AM
The o'bama international is needed for the 2012 re-election campains!!
Carol Mar 23rd 2010 2:00PM
Bob Herbert's columns were flat-out wrong. An airport at Peotone is folly. Check out the real story at http://chblog.ozarkattitude.com