From Yesterday's Daily Herald.
Five road projects, some too complicated and expensive to have been realistically considered before, are on Lake County's fast track.
Transportation officials on Wednesday unveiled a list of road work projects to be paid for with increased sales tax revenue, authorized last year as part of a Regional Transportation Authority reform.
Nearly $11 million is being proposed for the required first stage of study for five major projects. The county board's public works and transportation committee supports the choices, which go to the county board next week for official approval.
The suggested projects are:
- $3.54 million for Route 83/Rollins Road/Canadian National Railroad/Hainesville Road intersections.
- $2.14 million for Route 45 at Millburn Road.
- $980,000 for Route 176/Fairfield Road.
- $1.92 million for Route 134/Fairfield Road/Metra railroad intersections.
- $2.15 million for Washington Street, Hainesville Road to Lake Street and Canadian National railroad crossing.
In each case, the money is being designated for preliminary engineering, also referred to as Phase 1 of a given project. That process takes about two years.
"The purpose of the Phase 1 study is to find out what's the best solution," said Marty Buehler, director of transportation. "We're looking for the long-term improvement."
The solution could be an overpass or underpass, which is much more involved than adding lanes or widening an intersection. The Route 83/Rollins project in Round Lake Beach, for example, would have a major impact on businesses.
County officials say the projects will include a significant amount of public involvement, such as a business task force for the Route 83/Rollins project.
The concerns would be different at Fairfield/Route 176, which has forest preserve property on all four corners. In that case, environmental impacts would be the main concern.
Whatever the decisions, the county is making a point of moving as quickly as possible to use its new source of revenue.
Collected since last summer, the sales tax is expected to provide the county with more than $29 million a year in new revenue - more than doubling its current road work budget.
"We wanted to put the money to work as quickly as possible so people see we mean business to get projects done," said Paula Trigg, director of planning and programming for the division of transportation.
The list presented Wednesday is not the first expenditure of the new sales tax funds. About $3 million already has designated as a local match for the reconstruction of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive from Sheridan Road to Green Bay Road, a $12 million project.
Last year, the county board voted to spend all the new sales tax money on road work, although other uses such as public safety projects also are allowable.
About 60 percent of the county funds are designated for state road projects that are considered perennial bottlenecks the Illinois Department of Transportation has not had the funding to pursue.
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