Legislative Committee: Peotone, Monee Interchanges Top County’s 2027 Road Ask to Springfield

Will County Legislative Committee | October 6, 2026

Article Summary: The Will County Board’s Legislative Committee on Oct. 6, 2026, rewrote the transportation section of its draft 2027 State Legislative Agenda, softening language that had called a proposed Interstate 57 interchange at Eagle Lake Road “new and unnecessary” while keeping full rebuilds of the Monee-Manhattan Road and Peotone-Wilmington Road interchanges as the county’s stated priorities. The committee also heard that no new interest has surfaced in the long-proposed South Suburban Airport.

Local Road and Airport Priorities Key Points:

An amendment splits the sentence so the agenda reads that both I-57 interchanges “need to be completely redone,” followed by: “The proposed interchange at Interstate 57 and Eagle Lake Road is far less pressing.”

The amendment carried on a roll call; six ayes were recorded in the transcript and the chair declared the motion carried.

The agenda’s infrastructure section also carries an alternative plan for the proposed Peotone, or South Suburban, airport, including transferring wooded parcels to the Will County Forest Preserve District and selling farm and homestead properties.

State lobbyist Matt Murphy told the committee he has heard nothing new on the airport: “It doesn’t feel like it’s going to be an airport.”

WILL COUNTY — The Will County Board’s Legislative Committee on Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026, reworked the portion of its draft 2027 State Legislative Agenda that tells Springfield which eastern Will County highway projects matter most — and in the process stepped back from calling a proposed Eagle Lake Road interchange unnecessary.

The plank, on page 21 of the draft dated 09.23.2026, is headed “SUPPORTS: Additional Meetings Between the Illinois Department of Transportation and Will County Board Representatives.” It asks for additional annual meetings between IDOT and county board representatives on local road and bridge projects, and asks the state to “establish a program so that local county governments have more input into IDOT project priorities.”

As drafted, the plank’s closing example read that “both interchanges off of Interstate 57 need to be completely redone at Monee-Manhattan Road and Peotone-Wilmington Road for safety of local vehicles and semis that travel through the area versus a new and unnecessary interchange at Interstate 57 and Eagle Lake Road.”

A member proposed ending the sentence after “travel through the area” and adding a new sentence: “The proposed interchange at Interstate 57 and Eagle Lake Road is far less pressing.” Chair Denise Winfrey asked whether there were concerns. There were none voiced, and a roll call was taken at a member’s suggestion so there would be no questions later. Ogalla, Berkowicz, Brooks, Bullock, Hickey and Winfrey were recorded in the affirmative; Winfrey declared the motion carried.

Airport Alternative Stays in the Agenda

The same page carries the county’s standing position on the proposed South Suburban Airport, headed “SUPPORTS: The Consideration of Alternatives to the South Suburban Airport to Protect Farmland.”

That plank encourages the legislature to consider an alternative plan that “preserves our natural resources, protects farmland with conservation farming initiatives, creates an environment to provide education to future farmers of America, and restores private ownership of farmland and homesteads.” Its specifics, printed in the draft’s blue new-language type, would:

Donate or transfer wooded acres to the Will County Forest Preserve District. The draft describes two parcels with hundreds of trees planted using federal Conservation Reserve Program funds more than 30 years ago, and says the area has seen the return of pheasants, healthy deer herds, wild turkeys, herons and eagles.

Sell farm properties to local young farmers looking to expand.

Sell homestead properties to those wishing to live in the area.

Set aside an area to teach regenerative farming for multiple crops and to teach area residents how to can and process locally grown food.

Develop a small local meat processing plant so area farmers can take pigs, cattle, chickens and sheep to market.

Earlier in the meeting, Vice Chair Judy Ogalla asked the county’s state lobbyists whether anything had moved on the airport. She said the request for proposals for the airport had been pushed to December for submissions, and said the push tends to resurface when certain south suburban officials are up for reelection.

Matt Murphy of Mac Strategies said he had heard nothing. “I’d had someone tell me, you know, maybe six months ago that there had been interest, and I remember being a little surprised and frankly a little skeptical, because it’s been years and there just hasn’t been the level of interest that I think people are hoping they would have for something there,” Murphy said.

He added: “At some point, I assume somebody’s going to develop that property. How? I don’t know. But it doesn’t feel like it’s going to be an airport.”

Ogalla said residents have been telling her that the state has shifted from pursuing a Peotone airport to a Monee airport, and said the two are the same project. “People just don’t know the information, so they’re just putting whatever they’re hearing out there,” she said.

Nothing Is Final Yet

Committee action on the agenda is a recommendation. The attached draft resolution provides that the full Will County Board “hereby establishes the list of priorities set forth as the Will County 2027 State Legislative Agenda in substantially the same form as attached hereto,” and states that the agenda will guide the board’s state lobbyists in representing the county’s priorities to state legislators. Neither the interchange language nor the airport plank carries any force until the full board adopts the resolution.

The committee also corrected a typographical error elsewhere on page 21, in the fifth bullet of the airport plank, where a parenthesis had been opened and never closed. Winfrey said she would treat it as a scrivener’s error requiring no vote, and a member confirmed the punctuation would be fixed.