Resurfacing pothole-scarred roads and shoring up crumbling bridges will be the main focus of the state’s six-year highway plan, despite an equally urgent need to expand the transportation system to head off a looming congestion crisis, officials said Thursday.
Coming off a harsh winter during which the state spent $89 million to clear snow and ice, more than double normal, only the most vital roadwork is being done until the new fiscal year begins in July, officials said.
As a result, state crews aren’t mowing grass or removing dead animals along state routes,said Christine Reed, director of highways at the Illinois Department of Transportation.
“But we will not compromise safety,” vowed Reed, adding that inspections and maintenance dollars will be aimed at deteriorated bridges.
The spans raising safety concerns include the heavily traveled Congress Parkway bridge over the Chicago River in downtown Chicago. The Congress bridge was placed on a priority list in the new almost $11 billion highway plan. It is slated to undergo a $22 million rehab starting next year.
About $126 million will be spent in the fiscal year beginning July 1 to resurface more than 260 miles of state roads damaged by potholes over the winter, officials said.
The new blueprint for state roads is long on projects that will remain on hold because of insufficient funding.
Work has indefinitely been delayed on rebuilding part of Wacker Drive in downtown Chicago, road projects linked to expanding O’Hare International Airport and constructing an interchange from Interstate Highway 57 to the South Tri-State Tollway.
Overall, the no-growth state roads program for fiscal 2009 through 2014 announced Thursday is nearly identical in spending levels to the 2008-2013 plan released last year.
Addressing the backlog of roads and bridges in disrepair will remain the top priority, officials said.
“Once again, we are confronted with limited resources, and we have to apply those to the areas we deem necessary to at least address the worst of the worst,” said Illinois Transportation Secretary Milton Sees.
He called the highway plan “bare-bones.”
In spite of the tight budget, IDOT will spend $32.8 million on landscaping, fencing and other work along the Dan Ryan Expressway (Interstate Highway 90/94), which was rebuilt from 2004 to 2007 at a cost of $975 million, almost double original estimates.
There are no projects on the scale of the Ryan work slated in the Chicago region.
But relatively large projects getting under way this fiscal year will include building 6.3 miles of additional lanes on Illinois Highway 59 from Illinois 126 to U.S. Highway 52 in the Plainfield area.
The roadway expansion work is estimated to cost $69 million, IDOT said.
Construction is expected to be completed this fall on widening Interstate Highway 55 from Interstate Highway 80 to Weber Road in Will County, officials said.
Beginning about 2010, about 9 1/2 miles of the Bishop Ford Freeway (Interstate Highway 94) will be resurfaced from west of King Drive to U.S. Highway 6 in southern Cook County. Engineering will get under way this year on the $50.6 million project, IDOT said.
Sees warned that work to deal with worsening traffic gridlock won’t happen at the pace needed to reduce travel times and increase safety without additional capital funding.
And Gov. Rod Blagojevich and legislative leaders remain far apart on a new statewide capital spending plan. The last capital funding program, Illinois FIRST, expired four years ago, leading to a growing backlog of roads and bridges in disrepair.
High among the no-go projects on the IDOT road plan are several that Chicago considers vital to the expansion of O’Hare.
Plans still in limbo include building a long-sought western-access road to O’Hare and a ring road through the airport connecting the Northwest Tollway (Interstate Highway 90) and the Tri-State Tollway (Interstate Highway 294), extending the Elgin-O’Hare Expressway to the airport border and relocating Irving Park Road to make way for a planned runway.
The deteriorating north-south section of Wacker Drive, from Randolph Street to Congress Parkway, must also stay on the waiting list until federal and state funding materializes to reconstruct the double-deck roadway through the Loop.
The city has only about $30 million in hand for the $315 million project, which has escalated in cost by about $50 million in the last five years due to rising prices for materials.
———-
jhilkevitch@tribune.com
awiehle@tribune.com
