Traffic lanes reserved exclusively for car pools and buses will be built for the first time on Chicago`s highway system as part of the planned rehabilitation of the Stevenson Expressway, state officials announced Tuesday. The $280 million Stevenson project, expected to begin sometime after the Kennedy Expressway reconstruction project is completed in fall 1994, is among $5.4 billion worth of projects in the Illinois Department of Transportation`s five-year road program.
The road plan also would provide funding to complete work on the Kennedy and calls for the completion of the western leg of the Elgin-O`Hare Expressway by summer 1993, continued land acquisition for new suburban expressways and $660 million in special projects designed to ease traffic congestion in the Chicago area.
Funding for the plan must be approved by the General Assembly and also depends on continued federal highway funds, which account for roughly $3.4 billion. The state`s share of the overall plan would amount to about $1.8 billion. The rest would come from local governments.
The plan is updated annually, and funds for it are appropriated on a yearly basis.
Transportation officials said the construction of the special car-pool and bus lanes on the inbound Stevenson, from Western Avenue to the Dan Ryan Expressway, will be the first time that high-occupancy vehicle lanes ”will get a serious review in the northeastern Illinois area.”
”We have looked at the feasibility of doing it in the past, but now we`re talking the actual engineering and construction of it,” said IDOT spokesman Richard Adorjan.
Preliminary engineering work on the Stevenson is scheduled to begin in the next fiscal year, which starts July 1. Construction is expected to start sometime between fiscal 1994 and fiscal 1997. The cost of adding the special restricted inbound lanes, along with the inbound rehabilitation work, is budgeted at $140 million.
State officials do not yet know how the use of the special lanes will be enforced.
Transportation officials said agreements will have to be negotiated with the Illinois State Police, which monitors the Chicago expressway system, and legislation will be needed to authorize the lanes for special use and to make it illegal to drive on them in low-occupancy vehicles.
The strategy has received good reviews in California, where special lanes have been used for more than a decade. More than 250 miles of high-occupancy vehicle lanes are in use there, and about 500 additional miles are either under construction or being planned.
”High-occupancy-vehicle lanes are a real vital part of our system in moving traffic,” said Jim Drago of the California Department of
Transportation. ”We believe it has a benefit for those who ride-share and helps the main lanes of traffic. It helps keep traffic moving, and that`s good for air quality.”
Drago said 1,000 to 2,000 vehicles per hour per day use the special lanes.
Illinois Transportation Secretary Kirk Brown said the overall five-year plan will provide badly needed jobs during a time of recession. Brown said an estimated 120,000 road construction jobs would be needed to carry out the five-year plan, 25,000 alone next fiscal year.
New road construction represents just 10 percent of the overall program, with the rest geared toward rehabilitating existing roads.
Brown also warned that any efforts by lawmakers to try to divert road construction dollars to general government operations would force projects to be canceled.
More than $1.5 billion worth of highway work is scheduled to begin next fiscal year, including $55 million to complete the Elgin-O`Hare Expressway from Interstate 290 to Lake Street.
Plans to stretch the expressway east to O`Hare International Airport are contingent on political agreements on new runways at the airport. And those agreements depend on legislative action on the proposed third airport at Lake Calumet.
The five-year program also includes $30 million for land acquisition for three future projects: the planned Fox Valley Expressway, extension of the North-South Tollway to Interstate 80 near Joliet and a proposed Illinois 53 extension in Lake County.
Brown said land would only be acquired when private development appears imminent along the possible routes.
Other road projects in fiscal 1993 include:
In Cook County:
– $118 million for continued work on the inbound Kennedy, from the Edens Expressway to Hubbard`s Cave.
– $5 million for a new interchange on the Tri-State Tollway at 75th Street.
– $3.2 million for resurfacing and bridge rehabilitation on Waukegan Road in Northbrook.
– $5.2 million for resurfacing and signal work on North Avenue through Northlake, Stone Park, Melrose Park, Elmwood Park and River Forest.
– $1.15 million for Calumet Expressway interchange construction and bridge work at Lincoln Highway.
– $9.5 million for resurfacing and bridge work on Cermak Road in Westchester, Broadview and North Riverside.
– $2.5 million in computerized traffic system work in Chicago.
– $30 million in work on the Elgin-O`Hare Expressway in Schaumburg, Hanover Park and Roselle.
– $6 million for signal work and resurfacing of Michigan Avenue in Chicago.
– $3.3 million of an eventual $8.3 million in reconstruction and resurfacing around the new Chicago Stadium.
– $6 million for new lanes, traffic signals and other improvements on Ingalton Road in Bartlett, from Lake Street south of the Soo Line Railroad tracks.
– $1.2 million for work on Algonquin Road in Barrington Hills, from Dundee Road to Palatine Road.
In Lake County:
– $2.2 million for bridge widening and to install signals on Half Day Road over Interstate 94.
– $2.1 million for intersection improvements and signals on Half Day Road at Ridge Road in Highland Park.
– $1.5 million to update environmental impact statement for Illinois 53 from Illinois 120 to Lake Cook Road in Hawthorn Woods, Grayslake and Long Grove.
– $4.1 million to replace a bridge on Illinois 59 over Rollins Road in Fox Lake.
– $14.3 million to add lanes, fix bridges and buy land along nearly three miles of Mundelein Road from Half Day Road to Lake Zurich Road in Long Grove, Indian Creek and Vernon Hills.
– $12.2 million to add lanes, fix bridges and modernize signals on Mundelein Road from Illinois 22 to Arlington Heights Road in Long Grove and Buffalo Grove.
– $10.5 million to add lanes along 2.3 miles of Belvidere Road from west of Darrell Road to Illinois 60.
– $1.5 million to replace a bridge on Deerfield Road over the Des Plaines River in Riverwoods.
In Will County:
– $18.6 million on bridge replacements and other repairs along Interstate 55.
– $20 million to build a new interchange and rebuild a one-mile stretch of Interstate 80 in Joliet.
– $1 million to resurface 2.2 miles of Railroad Street from Belt Line to McDonough Street in Joliet.
– $1 million to resurface 2.25 miles of Illinois 53 from Royce Road to I- 55 in Bolingbrook.
– $1.25 million for engineering studies on Division Street in Plainfield. – $551,000 to resurface 7.7 miles of the Calumet Expressway northbound from Burrville Road to Dixie Highway.
– $1.6 million for miscellaneous projects in the village of Frankfort.
– $1.25 million to reconstruct Houbolt Road from U.S. 52 to Joliet Junior College in Joliet.
