More than 30 years after state transportation officials proposed extending Illinois Highway 53 north into Lake County, the on-again, off-again proposal is on again–or possibly off again–depending on who is talking.
Regardless of the proposal’s status, it generates perhaps the most debate of any plan regarding Lake County’s transportation needs. Other projects, including road widenings, intersection improvements, bridge reconstructions, traffic signal installations and a rail-bus hub, are among the other fixes under way or under consideration by transportation planners.
Business, industrial and residential growth has skyrocketed in Lake County, flooding many state and county highways with more traffic than they were designed to handle. Transportation experts expect congestion to get worse.
“One-third of [state highways in Lake County] are congested now,” said Peter Harmet, deputy project manager for the Illinois Department of Transportation. “We’re looking at congestion going to two-thirds [by 2020]. A host of routes from the middle of the county south is where a lot of the worst congestion is. But from a perception perspective, you’d be hard-pressed to name any roads that are not congested.”
Three-year study ending
Harmet has been leading IDOT’s Lake County Transportation Improvement Project, which is wrapping up a three-year study. The project is offering two major alternatives to state transportation officials: extending Illinois 53 or widening Interstate Highway 94–the Tri-State Tollway–to eight lanes and making several routes six lanes wide, including Illinois Highways 21 and 83 and U.S. Highways 12 and 45.
“We’re already seeing spillover onto county roads from the state routes,” Harmet said. “A lot of people figure out shortcuts, and then the shortcuts are full.”
County transportation officials have the figures to back him up.
“From 1990 to 1999, travel on county roads was up 62 percent,” said Martin Buehler, county engineer and director of the Lake County Division of Transportation. “In that same period, lane miles added to county roads grew 14 percent. The backlog of miles of two-lane county roads over capacity grew by 236 percent.
“Generally, the southeast part of the county is bad, but [traffic congestion] is pretty much spread across the county. Even in the midst of low-density towns like Hawthorn Woods, you’ll find intersections that are congested.””
For the third consecutive year, the Lake County Board has made transportation its top priority. The county has a $39 million construction program for 2001 that includes 29 projects involving 17 miles of county roads and highways.
Road funding sought
The County Board also recently asked the General Assembly for authority to place a referendum proposal on the ballot seeking a quarter-percent sales tax to fund road projects, but according to state Sen. Adeline Geo-Karis (R-Zion), the House merged her sales tax referendum bill with several other bills, and it never came up for a vote in the House.
“It’s still alive, but I don’t know what will happen with it,” she said. “I guess we’ll have to wait until the fall session.”
If the referendum proposal makes it to the ballot next year and is approved by voters, the extra tax would generate $12 million to $18 million annually, Buehler said.
The county’s road construction program is small potatoes compared with the state’s. IDOT has more than 100 projects under way or planned in Lake County in the next five years. Lane additions and other work on Illinois Highway 22 from U.S. Highway 14 in Fox River Grove east past I-94 will total more than $150 million. Total spending in the next five years will top $300 million.
This work amounts to about half of the “baseline” roadway improvements that state and county transportation officials believe are likely to be made by 2020, Harmet said. These improvements include adding lanes to 74 miles of roadways.
Even if all baseline improvements are made, traffic congestion is likely to double by 2020 unless additional steps are taken, Harmet said. Those additional steps–adoption of one of the two major alternatives recommended by the Lake County Transportation Improvement Project–generate much debate.
Project planners estimate the cost of the Illinois 53 extension at $830 million and the cost of adding lanes to I-94 and other major north-south routes at $1.1 billion. Both estimates are in 1999 dollars.
The Northwest Municipal Conference, which represents north suburban mayors, has repeatedly endorsed the Illinois 53 extension. Village President Timothy Perry of Grayslake also endorses it.
The extension would run north from Lake-Cook Road to Grayslake, where an east-west leg of would function as a Grayslake bypass.
Grayslake at center stage
“Grayslake is unique in that it is at the geographic center of the county,” Perry said. “There’s growth to the north and west of us, and a great majority of that traffic is going to be coming through Grayslake. We’re going to be choked with traffic that is not Grayslake-bound.
“I have been a strong advocate of the Route 53 extension. I think a vast majority of Grayslake proper views that as a good idea. Route 53 by itself, even with the bypass of Route 120, is not the whole answer. It’s one piece of a much larger puzzle.”
His counterpart in Long Grove, Village President Tony Dean, just as strongly opposes the Illinois 53 proposal and said it probably is dead on arrival because the state can’t fund the work.
“The concern I have is that the state is not addressing problems realistically,” he said. “Illinois can’t afford to build Route 53. They need to stop spinning out monumental traffic solutions. Focus on practical solutions. Do simple things, like widening existing roadways, intersection improvements.
Their opposing views are mirrored on the Lake County Board, said Chairman Suzi Schmidt.
“We’re split on the Route 53 extension but all of us are together on expanding the existing road system,” she said. “Whether or not 53 happens, we still have to do that.”
As area programmer for IDOT, Ed Wilson knows the more than 100 Lake County road projects on his schedule for the next five years will keep him busy. He’s already busier than expected this year because of winter weather that damaged a number of roads. Work to resurface roadways damaged by winter freezing and thawing at 10 locations “will have the greatest immediate impact” on traffic, he said.
Winter’s impact strong
Major winter repair projects now under way or starting shortly include U.S. 41 from Washington Street in Park City to Illinois Highway 43; U.S. 41 from I-94 to 1,000 feet north of Illinois Highway 173; Illinois 43 south of Illinois 22 to Deerfield High School; Illinois Highway 132 at I-94; and Sheridan Road from Blodgett Road to McKinley Road in Lake Bluff.
Other IDOT work includes resurfacing U.S. 41 from south of West Park Avenue in Highland Park to I-94 in Northbrook. That work was scheduled to begin in late June. Traffic will be taken from two lanes to one lane in each direction. Construction should continue through August.
“My advice is take the train if you can,” Wilson said. “Getting to Clavey Road will be a problem. Alternates are [Highways] 21 and 43 and I-94. All of them are operating at capacity already, though.”
Accident-prone intersection
In Wilson’s view, one of the most important projects is U.S. 41 at Illinois 132, where drivers must enter and exit U.S. 41 from the center of the road.
“This has been identified as a high-accident location,” Wilson said. “We’ll put ramps on the outside, where people expect them to be.” Work on the $12 million project is under way and scheduled for completion in two years.
At the county level, several major road construction projects are under way or planned. One project of note is the widening of 6 miles of Butterfield Road to five lanes from two. Work is starting at Illinois Highway 137 at the north end of Libertyville and ending south at U.S. 45 in Vernon Hills. About 2 miles between those locations has been widened.
Buehler said he expects the widening to take two to three years to complete. Cost will be $3 million to $4 million a mile.
Another county road project under way is intersection improvements on Hawley Street at Illinois Highway 176 and Gilmer and Fremont Center Roads in Mundelein.
While most of the focus is on roads, planners also hope to improve mass transit options. To that end, Waukegan officials have approved a concept plan for a rail-bus hub at the lakefront.
Regional Transportation Authority Executive Director Richard Bacigalupo has said that within five years, commuters could stroll between downtown Waukegan and the lakefront, transfer between buses and Metra trains and run errands at shops and service businesses in and near the transit center.
“It’s a really exciting opportunity for downtown redevelopment, and we’ll be able to make transit work right in the middle of it,” Bacigalupo told the Waukegan City Council when he introduced his agency’s $77 million proposal in February.
The plan includes a large walkway that would follow Madison Street from downtown to the lakefront.
New Metra station proposed
The RTA report also recommends building a new Metra station and adding facilities for Pace buses.
Funding for the plan has not been addressed. City officials say money probably would come from local, state and federal sources.
Metra and local officials also continue to study putting commuter rail service on the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern freight line, a route about 105 miles long that loops around Chicago about 30 miles outside the city. It starts in Waukegan, heads west, then south through Cook, Kane, DuPage and Will Counties. At its south end it turns east and ends in Lynwood, near the Indiana border.
Barrington, Hawthorn Woods, Lake Zurich and Mundelein are some of the communities through which the line runs.
“This would start a suburb-to-suburb rail service,” said Metra spokesman Tom Miller. “That’s pretty significant. There’s nothing like that out there right now. People have no viable alternative to the automobile. They’re hampered by highway congestion.”
Miller said that because the EJ&E line crosses each of Metra’s existing lines, commuters could take the EJ&E line to a second line, transfer and head into Chicago and back again, something that is not possible on the existing rail lines.
“The biggest hurdle would be how to pay for it. Massive amounts of federal, state and local money would be needed,” Miller said. “Hundreds of millions of dollars. But with Illinois one of the few states searching for alternatives through rail, it may be put to good use.”
More bus and rail alternatives in concept seem to have support from many Lake County transportation and municipal officials, including those who strongly endorse the Illinois 53 extension.
“We need to embrace just about every other option, including widening intersections and arterial roads and more use of public transportation,” Perry said. “We need more rail options. Metra needs be more convenient for commuters out here.”
Drivers beware: Roadwork ahead
Lake County and the Illinois Department of Transportation have plans for more than 120 road projects over the next five years, ranging from small resurfacing projects to major lane additions, intersection improvements and bridge repairs. Here are some of the projects Lake County motorists can expect to encounter now or soon:
U.S. Highway 41 at Illinois Highway 132 in Gurnee: bridge replacement and reconstruction. This project is under way and slated for completion in 2003. Cost: $12 million.
U.S. Highway 45 from Illinois Highway 137 to Illinois Highway 176: nearly 3 miles of additional lanes and improved traffic signal installations beginning this year and ending next year. Cost: $14.6 million.
Illinois Highway 21 from Washington Street to south of Illinois Highway 120 in Gurnee: lane additions, bridge reconstruction and traffic signal improvements beginning next year. Cost: $27 million.
Illinois Highway 22 from U.S. Highway 14 in Fox River Grove to east of Interstate Highway 94: additional lanes, bridge replacements, improved traffic signals and street lights, to be done in phases over several years. Cost: $165 million.
Illinois Highway 83 from the Wisconsin state line to Petite Lake Road in Antioch and Lake Villa: widening and resurfacing project, including bridge replacement over Soo Line Railroad tracks. Multiyear project is under way. Cost: $16 million.
Intersection improvements at St. Mary’s Road and Illinois 176 and at St. Mary’s and Old Rockland Roads in Green Oaks and Libertyville. Work scheduled to begin in October and end in fall 2002. Cost: $3.6 million.
Resurfacing of Rollins Road from Illinois 83 in Round Lake Beach to Fairfield Road in Round Lake Heights. Work scheduled to begin this fall. Cost: $3.2 million.
Widening of nearly 2 miles of Washington Street to five lanes from Illinois 83 east to U.S. 45. Project to begin next year. Cost: $3.2 million.
Widening 2 miles of Washington Street from U.S. 45 east to Hunt Club Road, just west of Gurnee. Contingent on county receiving about $2.8 million of state funding next year to help pay projected $4 million cost.
–Compiled by Steve Stanek
