Driving north on Randall Road just south of Batavia, you pass an expansive green meadow in which a jet-black steer trots among dandelion puff balls, stirring up seeds like suspended dust. Climbing a gentle hill, you see clusters of trees, a pond, the charming farm and well-tended buildings on the Mooseheart grounds, bordered by a quaint white fence. Moments later, you glance to the west at a large field, where the dark earth recently has been turned in anticipation of the planting season.
Just ahead squats a water tower, a sentry overseeing the transition from the Mooseheart area to Batavia. Here is where you begin to see signs and businesses, stores and restaurants. Burger King. A muffler shop. A bank. Then, in rapid succession, there are gas stations, car dealerships, a Jewel-Osco shopping plaza, then Target, Ace, Wendy’s, Home Depot, Kohl’s.
Yet even as you’re feeling regret for the loss of picturesque farmland, you sense your fingers beginning to creep toward your wallet. All your favorite stores, it seems, are right here on Randall Road.
“It’s convenient to have those stores there, so we don’t have to go so far away to shop,” said Debra Hill, who has been a Geneva resident for 15 years. Yet she remembers how Randall Road used to be, before the stores.
“It was all cornfields when we moved in. But then, about seven years ago, things just went `boom.’ Now they just continue to let the building run rampant.”
The surge of retail construction along Randall Road — particularly through Batavia, Geneva and St. Charles–has fostered many emotions and concerns among officials and residents in these cities. But although the loss of the area’s signature farmland is a heart-sinking worry for many, the most immediate–and daily– aggravation lies in the strangling traffic.
“On a Saturday morning, it can take you 45 minutes to an hour to go about 4 miles. It looks like (Illinois Highway) 59 in Naperville,” said Hill, who added that whenever possible, she avoids Randall entirely and scoots onto back roads.
“Right now, this is the worst area in Kane County for traffic flow,” said Jeff Dailey, director of Kane County’s division of transportation, who noted that the arrival of numerous “big box” stores has sent traffic over the edge at several intersections on Randall.
In fact, the area where Randall meets Fabyan Parkway has been designated a “failing intersection.” This engineering term, said Dailey, is a grading system based on how long people have to wait at the light. With waits at the Randall-Fabyan intersection lengthening to five or even 10 minutes Saturday afternoons and during rush hours, it’s no wonder it has been issued an “F.” Conditions at Illinois Highway 64 and Randall are not much better.
Then there’s the not-so-insignificant matter of “visual chaos,” a term given to the seemingly endless assault of signs and stores that exist on retail stretches such as Randall.
“A lot of `big box’ stores are not known for their architectural splendor,” said Sam Santell, the Kane County director of planning and special projects.
To those who make the drive on a regular basis, it will come as no surprise that about 40,000 vehicles travel Randall every day, according to statistics provided by Dailey. Although the stores attract most of the traffic–particularly on weekends–much is also due to the numbers associated with population growth. According to figures provided by the county clerk’s office, Kane County was home to 317,471 people in 1990. That number jumped to nearly 400,000 in 1998, when the most recent count was taken.
Still, “the amount of traffic is increasing at a greater rate than the growth of population,” said Santell. “My feeling is that all of us are making more trips. It used to be that on a Saturday we’d make one trip. Now it’s three, four, five trips in a heartbeat.”
But where some see traffic woes and dwindling meadows, others see the benefits of a healthy economy. The retail stores on Randall “shows that the county is growing. It’s bringing in more tax dollars for all the communities involved. It’s bringing stores that people wanted to see,” noted Delorise Ivy, director of the Batavia Chamber of Commerce. “If there is constant traffic on a Saturday, it means that the people are out utilizing the stores.”
Santell agrees that the busy businesses provide a good retail base for the area, as well as providing residents with plentiful employment opportunities. “It also reduces trips farther east to Fox Valley, so we’ve become more self-sufficient. Although now we have people coming up from the Fox Valley area to shop here. It’s a two-edged sword.”
Even as residents recognize their love-hate relationship with Randall Road, the nagging question remains: What will be done about the traffic?
From Dailey’s point of view in the county transportation division, portions of Randall need to be widened to six lanes from four, and more turn lanes need to be added. They’ve already begun making sure the traffic lights are synchronized to keep traffic flowing as smoothly as possible. But Dailey warns that there’s only so much that can be done right now, given budget restraints.
“We’re aware of the problems, and the Transportation Committee will be trying to wrestle with our transportation priorities over the summer,” he said. As for right now, until the funds become available for necessary upgrades, “we’re going to have a lot of people sitting in congestion,” he noted.
Santell also observed that immediate short-term solutions are not forthcoming.
“What do we do? We all slow down. . .We modify our driving patterns.”
ROADS TO STEER AWAY FROM
The following is a list of some of the road improvements that will affect local traffic in the coming months:
– Keslinger and Peck Roads, Kane County, new overpass being built; project will run through the end of the year.
– Bricher and Randall Roads, Kane County, traffic signals installed near new Meijer store; summer.
– Orchard Road, from Interstate Highway 88 to Indian Trail, Kane County, widened to four lanes; June through the end of the year.
– Randall Road, Bricher to Fargo Road, Kane County, resurfacing, summer.
– Randall Road at Keslinger, Geneva, turn lane being added; summer. – Illinois Highway 64 at Campton Hills Road, St. Charles, turn lane being added, summer.
– Fisher Farms Development, on Randall Road in Geneva, turn lanes being added, summer.
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For more information, contact the Illinois Department Of Transportation at 847-705-4079 or the Kane County Highway Department at 630-584-1170.
