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Governor signs bill paving the way for 3rd Chicago-area airport

Governor Pat Quinn signed a bill Thursday authorizing the Illinois Department of Transportation to move forward on building a 3rd Chicago-area Airport in Peotone.  Touting it as a job creator, the Governor says the construction phase will employ more than 11-thousand workers, and the operational airport will put more than 14-thousand people to work. 

Illinois Department of Transportation Secretary Anne Schneider says just this week, the US Army Corps of Engineers approved the wetlands study for the project and the FAA approved the state’s report on the flood plain. And Schneider stressed the importance of the public-private partnership model for building the airport.

"What that means is we're going to be leveraging private sector investment in this airport. The private sector is going to determine, these investors are going to determine the viability of this airport. They're going to invest in this airport. We're going to build it, and we're going to do so minimizing public input from the taxpayers."

Illinois has already spent more than 40 million dollars on acquiring land for the project.  Governor Quinn’s Fiscal Year 2014 budget also includes the remaining 71 million needed to complete land acquisition.