Quinn and Tollway: No decision, yet, on Route 53 extension
Representatives for Governor Quinn and for the Illinois Toll Highway Authority informed Godless in Chicago, yesterday, that no decision has been made, yet, regarding the proposal to extend Route 53 north into and through Lake County. However, I have more information from them, below.
As indicated in this post from Wednesday, the extension of Route 53, from Lake-Cook County Line Road near Buffalo Grove, to Illinois Route 120 near Grayslake, and then east to the Tri-State Tollway (Interstate 94) near Waukegan, is an extremely high priority to drivers in the area. This missing highway link, for which the right-of-way has already been reserved, not only affects drivers in Lake County, but also in northern Cook County as well. By having a cork in the roadway network at the current end of the expressway at Lake-Cook Road, massive traffic jams are unnecessarily created, every weekday during the morning and evening rush hours, on all of the arterial streets and many residential streets, from Palatine Road on the south to Route 60 on the north, a distance of 9 miles, and from Route 59 on the west to the Tri-State Tollway on the east, a distance of 13 miles.
There's also a proposal, which really should be built at the same time, to extend the Route 53 extension to the west and north from Route 120, to meet up with the Route 12 expressway at the Wisconsin border, between Richmond, Illinois, and Genoa City, Wisconsin.
This problem is very reminiscent of the way traffic was perpetually screwed up at the south end of the Northwest Expressway (now the Kennedy Expressway, Interstate 90/94), near downtown Chicago, before the Dan Ryan expressway was opened up in 1962. I remember how traffic used to come to a standstill, approaching the crash barrels blocking traffic on the Northwest from traveling past the Congress Expressway (now the Eisenhower Expressway, Interstate 290), as everybody was forced to slowly filter off onto either the eastbound or westbound Congress, to find an arterial street to take them south, exactly the same way that drivers are forced to slowly filter off of the Route 53 expressway at Lake-Cook Road to find another way north.
Here, specifically, is what the spokespeople for Gov. Quinn and for the Tollway told me, yesterday:
Robert Reed is the Director of Communications (Press Secretary) for Governor Quinn. Shortly after Governor Quinn's news conference, yesterday, to announce a new Chairwoman and two new Members for the Tollway Board of Directors, Bob Reed responded to my inquiry to him from the previous day. He contacted me to say that senior staff is aware of the situation and will continue to evaluate it.
I also had a telephone conversation with Joelle McGinnis, the spokeslady for the Tollway, shortly after the Tollway's part of the news conference. Joelle said that, in order for the Tollway to proceed, the Illinois General Assembly has to pass a resolution directing the Tollway to study the Route 53 extension, and the Governor has to direct the Tollway to put together a plan.
A federally required Environmental Impact Study ("EIS") has been done on a proposed extension, but the EIS was done so long ago that it has expired. Another EIS would need to be done before the extension could be built. Additional work done by the Lake County Transportation Improvement Project pre-dates the EIS.
Also, the extension may no longer be listed by the federal government as a proposed project.
I asked Joelle what citizens who support the project could do to help get the project restarted. Joelle suggested that advocates for the Route 53 extension contact their state legislators and the Governor to let their opinions be heard.
I've done that. How about you? Would you like a quick and easy way to do it, too? Leave a comment, here, and I'll make sure that the Tollway, the Governor and the General Assembly gets your message.
Please leave a comment, below, to let me know what you think. And tell your friends about this.
I look forward to your comments on this one, especially if you are a driver in southern Lake County or northern Cook County, and you think that it's well past time to Build 53.
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4 Comments
Bob Matter said:
Building the Route 53 extension will just further deepen our
auto dependency and add more noise and pollution. People that are not driving it now will be drawn to it if it is extended. There is a Metra station in Buffalo Grove. How many people are riding their bikes, walking, and carpooling to the Metra station every day? I bet not a fraction of how many that could be doing so, if they weren't so lazy and selfish. How many people are carpooling on the existing Route 53? Again I bet the number is less than 20% and I bet the percentage of single-occupancy vehicles is at or above 80%. Why is it that some of us are able to live full and happy lives without cars, while others insist not only on having a car, but that taxpayers make it convenient and cheap for them to drive and park everywhere and live out their suburban little-house-in-the-woods fantasies by paving over our planet?
gr8hands said:
You have to read this:
http://www.kltv.com/global/story.asp?s=10933571
ardecila said:
Sorry, just found this. In response to Bob: yes, Metra is great and all, but it goes to CHICAGO, and it doesn't even really serve the city well outside of downtown. If, like the majority of Chicagoland residents, you live in one suburb and work in another, then Metra won't help you. In fact, if you want more transit options, then the 53 extension is worthwhile. The only cost-effective way to provide transit in most of Lake County is to use buses, which will benefit greatly from the reduced congestion on surface streets and the fast trips on the expressway to connect to O'Hare and Schaumburg and other job centers. Clogged surface streets will have lower amounts of traffic that will allow for safer pedestrian crossings and "road diets".
joe ptak said:
Mr. Sherman, you state:
There's also a proposal, which really should be built at the same time, to extend the Route 53 extension to the west and north from Route 120, to meet up with the Route 12 expressway at the Wisconsin border, between Richmond, Illinois, and Genoa City, Wisconsin"
Can you please point me in the right direction on how best to obtain this information. Thank you very much.
Have a good day/week.
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