WSIL-TV 3 ABC
Top Stories
Last updated 10:08 am CT February 09, 2010.
Business Owners Suffer From IDOT Construction
The widening of route 13 to six lanes will put hundreds of people to work.
But not everyone is happy about the plan.
Six miles of the highway will be widened between Marion and Carterville.
That stretch will become more like an interstate with on and off ramps and frontage roads.
Several companies say that will hurt them by cutting off access to their business.
One man is speaking out against the plan.
Drive along route 13 through Crainville and it's hard to miss Peter Homoya's outrage about the route 13
expansion,"This is the way I feel about it, I mean they lied to me".
Signs spell out this developer's anger After he says he invested everything only to be forced into failure, "Nobody's interested in buying it."
Homoya says he spent 2 Million dollars developing this 60 acre lot.
He says there were plans for a hotel, bank and restaurant now all gone because IDOT didn't keep its end of the deal, "I thought it was a worthwhile investment but now since they're eliminating the
intersection nobody wants to purchase at all."
The plans online show the problem, Homoya says he was promised a signalled intersection here at the entrance of his property. But instead the median will be blocked. That means for three lanes of traffic passing westward by the businesses they'll have to drive all the way to Carterville to turn around and come back. Its something Homoya admits is unrealistic, " Put me out of business that's all... Big time.
IDOT doesn't believe the plan will turn this property into a waste. IDOT Engineer Danny Clayton says,
"You eliminate that big potential by not allowing people to try to move across what will be three lanes of traffic and then enter in three lanes of traffic.I think that when this project's complete that this
property will have just as good access as it has now and a lot safer access."
By: Christen Craig
ccraig@wsiltv.com
Now: 1265734077
