O'Hare Expansion Back on Track

By Rachelle Bowden in News on Oct 26, 2005 4:33PM

Back in September, the city got approval from the FAA for a $15 billion project to add runways and reconfigure existing runways in an effort to reduce flight delays.

With hardly enough time to go out and buy a new shovel to start the digging, the US Court of Appeals came in and ordered a halt to allow time to consider objections from those opposed to the expansion. Seriously, they came in the SAME day the FAA approved the project.

Well, now the court is saying that construction will continue with the project despite the objections, and it's likely that the bulldozers will start plowing this week.

But not if the Elk Grove Village Mayor has any say in it. He says "Thirty-six years we've fought this airport plan and for 36 years they haven't touched our community and they won't start now." What they're really upset about, and they should be, is that the project calls for the relocation of about 1,300 graves at St. Johannes Cemetery. The city of Chicago is planning to go ahead and buy the cemetery land but they don't plan to start digging until a lawsuit is settled.

Along with the corpse relocation, about 2,600 homes and 200 businesses will have to find a new place to reside. Opponents say that construction shouldn't be allowed to start until all the pending appeals are gone through because work that's started could permanently damage their land.

What do you think? Maybe Daley will order the dozers to go in one night and dig up the graves and in the morning when everyone wakes up it will just be done... ala Meigs Field.

Image via graveyards.com.