Officials say current plans for a South Suburban Airport focus on cargo air traffic. [Ben Szalinski/The Daily Line] 

Rumors have floated for years about the possibility of building a third Chicago airport near south suburban Peotone in southern Will County — a mostly rural community on Interstate 57 about 45 miles south of downtown Chicago.  

The plan has never gained serious traction outside of occasional land purchases, appropriations for road construction and designs and studies by the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). But a bill making its way through the Illinois House could give the project a new breath of life.