Endangered Bumblebee Halts Construction on Longmeadow Parkway

ALGONQUIN, IL - An endangered bumblebee stopped construction on the Longmeadow Parkway just hours after crews began work on the long-planned project.

An attorney for the Stop Longmeadow Tollbridge group was granted a temporary restraining order in federal court Monday. This meant crews, which officially started on construction of the roadway that morning, needed to cease work by the afternoon, the Northwest Herald reports.

The restraining order will be in effect until April 28, according to the Stop Longmeadow Facebook page.

The Stop Longmeadow group has found several claims in the past over federal statutes that could be violated if the roadway project moved forward, but Monday's motion focuses on the rusty patched bumblebee with the motion claiming the species is near extinction and has been found in the project area, according to the Northwest Herald.

While multiple claims are made about the project’s alleged violations of federal statutes, the temporary restraining order is solely concerned with the rusty patched bumblebee, a species on the brink of extinction that the Stop Longmeadow group claims was found in the project area, according to the Northwest Herald.

The Northwest Herald reports:

The instant motion did not ask for the Longmeadow project to be “entirely scrapped,” the motion states, but it asks for a temporary halt so defendants can assess the project’s effect on the bee species.

John Schmitt, Algonquin Village Board president who has long supported the Longmeadow Parkway project, told the Northwest Herald no bees have been found in the area and so plans could still move forward for the roadway.

“All it does is cost the taxpayers more money,” Schmitt said.

The Federal Highway Administration in recent months ruled the Longmeadow Parkway project would have "no significant impact" on the environment, which allowed local transportation officials to move forward with the long-planned project.

Following the ruling, the Stop Longmeadow Toll Bridge Group said they wanted to "challenge that ruling in federal court," according to the group's GoFundMe page. They claimed bald eagle, heron, and numerous other species habitat will be ruined by the construction project.

Planning on the 5.6-mile, four-lane roadway, which will run from Huntley Road to Route 62 in Barrington Hills and would include a bridge over the Fox River, has been in the works for years. The thoroughfare passes through portions of the villages of Algonquin, Carpentersville and Barrington Hills, as well as unincorporated areas of Kane County.

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