Report on the 120 Bypass (Part 1 of 5)

Last week we held one of our regular 120 Bypass Corridor Planning Council (CPC) meetings of which I am the Chairman. Our consultants TranSystems are getting into the meat of the matter with traffic projections involving all the major scenarios.

NOTE: This is an elaborate post involving many 11 x 17 pdfs so I am going to space the posts out all this week, my recommendation is to download the pdf and print it out while you look at them because its much easier to compare the scenarios and make observations.

The first item of business is to examine todays (2005 numbers are the most recent) of what is called ADT (Average Daily Traffic) counts, these numbers are gathered by IDOT (Illinois Department of Transportation). The numbers you see are only the cars on the actual roadway so to when a road crosses the route you need to add both ADT's to determine the flow for that intersection.

Some more information, when a two lane road reaches 15,000 ADT it is considered seriously congested, numbers past 20,000 indicate saturation and you literally can't put that many more cars on the road, for example 120 between Alleghany and Hainesville Road is 22,900 ADT right now. That number will not go much higher because the road just can't handle any more. Same thing for a 4 lane road 30,000 is serious congestion and 35-40,000 is as high as you can go, existing roads like this in Lake County today are Grand Avenue in Gurnee which is at 51,700 in some places.

Here is the first map which is existing conditions in Lake County right now. You can see that starting from US Route 12 and running East the entire route 120 is over the seriously congested aspect, hence the need for the 120 bypass or improvements to existing 120! Some locations I want to look at repeatedly on these maps are as follows:

• Look at the number for 120 at 83, 17,700! With train tracks no less! We can all visualize the long backups almost to Hainesville road in the mornings and the reverse backup in the evenings.
• Interstate 94 has 113,000 ADT right now.
• Peterson Road has 9,400 ADT between 60 and Alleghany
• 60 has 14,200 just past Fremont Center.
• Fairfield has 10,500 at Gilmer.
• Washington has 15,800 at 83.

I have driven all these roads at various times and can visualize these numbers in terms of how long I waited to get through intersections as I am sure all of you can as well.

Now we get to the interesting stuff Scenario 1: No improvements to IL 120. CMAP (Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning) has done extensive studies of the traffic patterns in Chicagoland and the numbers are the ones that IDOT requires us to use to determine future need. They are based on what projected traffic would look like in 2030. 22 years from now. So Scenario 1 is if nothing changes, no improvements nothing!

One caveat on these scenarios, is that they have been adjusted to take in the planned road improvements over the next 22 years, so for example Peterson's eventual widening to 4 lanes is taken into account.

• Look at the number for 120 at 83 now, 17,700 in 2008 but in 2030 the number is 17,400 indicating that the stretch of road is as full as it can be right now. But look along 120 east and west of this intersection, congestion has built everywhere. Essentially the feel of traffic along the entire 120 roadway will be the same as the 120 and 83 intersection in 22 years.
  
• Interstate 94 has 113,000 ADT in 2008. The new number is 161,400 in 2030.
  
• Peterson Road has 9,400 ADT between 60 and Alleghany in 2008. With the widening the road is heavily congested at 25,500 ADT in 2030.
  
• 60 has 14,200 just past Fremont Center in 2008. Now the traffic flows onto Peterson and not down 60 because there is some nonsense off the map there as well towards Mundelien.
  
• Fairfield has 10,500 at Gilmer in 2008. The number here is 15,000 (serious congestion) in 2030.
  
• Washington has 15,800 at 83 in 2008. The number here is 19,100 in 2030.

What is happening is that 120 has reached saturation, and commuters are seeking other routes, loading up on Peterson, Washington and Rollins (24,300 to 35,400) to go East. Traffic is quite frankly a disaster everywhere in the county.

Hopefully Help is on the Way for 60 and Peterson

Lake County has applied for a permit with the Illinois Department of Transportation to construct left turn lanes on Illinois Route 60 at Peterson Road. There is currently one lane in each direction at that location on Route 60 and it is shared by both left turners and drivers continuing straight through the intersection. One driver making a left turn can hold-up traffic for an entire cycle of the traffic signal.

Lake County is proposing to do the minimum amount of work necessary to add the turn lanes and modify the traffic signal equipment. The work is planned for this fall to help motorists that will need to utilize Illinois Route 60 as an alternate route during construction of the intersection at Fairfield Road and Gilmer Road in 2007.

Great Subdivision Names

I found this post here and I thought it was so clever I would reproduce it here. Since bizarrely the G23 commercial project on 60 and the proposed Synnesvedt Property are taking tentative names of "The Grove". I am going to make sure we have no more Prairies in the village, there are way to many streets with that in thier name. Perhaps there should be more streets named after me! Thats a joke, perhaps we can name them after people who post comments on my blog instead. Squidward Avenue, SWIRL Way, or Mayor McCheese Alley.

Route 60 Commercial Development

A long time reader Graham Little emailed me and asked about what's going on at 60 and Arden. So since I needed a post, I thought this was an excellent topic for the blog.

When the Lakewood homes development was on the drawing board, we were faced with a few choices. The major choice was the boards insistence that there be a significant investment in 60 and the new Cedar Lake Road. The second choice was our insistence on 30 acres in commercial set asides. At that time the village had a grand total of 43 acres (Fairfield and 134, Madrona, Bright Meadows and Wilson Road) of available commercial acreage so this was a substantial gain.

We could have demanded more commercial, but at a trade off for the Route 60 and Cedar Lake road project. In addition we originally wanted 40 acres together, but logistically this was not possible, so we settled for the the split site that currently exists, with 11 acres at the corner of 60 and Cedar Lake called Cedar Commons and the 20 acres on the South side of 60.

The project called Cedar Commons had a checkered history with the original developer being sued in every county in the area for all sorts of things it seemed like, and of course us having nothing happening until Lakewood could extricate themselves from the contract to market what is today Cedar Commons.

In the last few months we have made some excellent progress on the 26 acres and in fact are very close to getting final approvals for 26 acres of some very attractive stores and offices! This proposal has 192,000 sq ft of retail and office, along with a new signalized interesection. I am very excited by this project. The graphic above is of one of the proposed buildings as of a few weeks ago.

If anyone wants me to email the two PDF files of the development plans please email me and I will send you a copy.

Traffic Woes Coming

I was not going to post today because I was running late this morning, but as I drove to work and sat in traffic I noticed the sign indicating traffic information could be found at www.lakegov.info so when I got to work I went to the site and looked up the project at Fairfield and Gilmer (the one I was sitting at when I saw the sign) interesting site.

This intersection will contain a tunnel when they are done! Imagine that, 4 way stop sign to a tunnel, that's quite the jump in service level! Anyway what I could not find was when the road will shut down because a few months ago I read an article about the date of the shut down, and planned to blog on it, but got sidetracked. I will now be on a mission to find the information and post it here. I have some thoughts on how those of us who commute down Fairfield can avoid the mess as we go South on the 53-less county roads!

Full Report on the Transportation Summit

Last night was the second annual Lake County Transportation Association Transportation Summit, this year many more elected people attended and many more audience members were there as well. There were roughly 60 elected officials voting. The voting was boiled down to 4 buckets and 2 advisory votes. Follow this link for the ballot. I would also caution you that the project ranking does not prohibit choices that finish lower then first to receive funding; in fact in some cases all projects can receive funding. What we are doing is telling our state representatives what our priorities are in ranking order. I was impressed last year many people had no real concerted idea about what was going on, this year everyone was fully dialed in!

Bucket One-- Projects Ready for Preliminary Engineering
There were 12 projects in this bucket, those that would receive a realistic chance of receiving funding were those that finished in the top six. My vote was for (FW) which was for the Route 60, stretching from Fairfield to 176. This project easily finished in the top 6, although not first, HG did which is Lake Cook to Route 45. I would put the results here, but they divided the projects into 2 brackets and then took the top 10 and re-voted, I was not fast enough with my pen to get all the percentages.

Bucket Two—Projects Ready for Design Engineering
There were only 4 projects ready for this phase the results were easier to capture. My vote was for GE.
33% GF—US 45 from 60 to 21
26% GE—IL60/83 South of 176 to the EJ&E Railroad
25% GC—IL 131 Wisconsin State Line to Sunset Ave
16% GD—Milburn Bypass

Bucket Three—Projects Ready for Construction
This was the good one we had 5 candidates, my vote was for GL, my rationale was this areas traffic flow will improve traffic downstream on 45 and 60
73% GN—US 21 South of IL Route 120 to IL Route 137
12% GL—US 45 Washington to 120
8% GG—IL 83 Wisconsin state line to Petitie Lake Road
3% GJ—US 45 132 to Rollins Road
3% GK US 45 Rollins to Washington

Bucket Four—Regional Corridor Projects
Last year this was the 120 Corridor bypass vote, this year it was US 41 from Delany Road to Lake Cook. My vote was strongly agree.
45%--Strongly Agree
31%--Agree
11%--Neutral
5%--Disagree
8%--Strongly Disagree

Advisory Ballot-- Enhanced Public Transit Service
The next things on the ballot were both advisory votes the first was for Enhanced Public Transit Service. All of these things are quite needed, the one I supported the highest was reverse commuting. The five items on the ballot that we talked about were as follows. The voting moved so quickly that I could not make heads or tails out of my notes this morning.
1. Comprehensive Para-transit
2. Connectivity Rail-Bus/Multi Modal Hubs
3. Express Service Rail-Bus
4. Rail Extensions
5. Reverse Commute.

Advisory Ballot—Route 53
The last advisory was the level of support for Route 53. I voted for strongly agree, considering that we had 60 people voting in the room and the mayors and the township supervisors, and county board members who are “traditionally” anti-53 there were 12 anti 53 votes and 42 pro votes. Overall I was quite pleased with the way this vote went, obviously I would have preferred 100% unanimity, but a consensus of nearly 70% has emerged in my mind.
61%--Strongly Agree
8%--Agree
3%--Neutral
6%--Disagree
21%--Strongly Disagree

Two caveats were added before the vote on 53, which were 53 will not be pursues and the expense of improvements to existing arterials, and 53 will only be pursued if other funding (i.e. toll way privatization) becomes available.

The Cedar Lake Road Extension

This is an old article from last year, but since I attended a meeting of the Lakewood Orchard HOA last night where the Cedar Lake Road extension was a topic of discussion I thought I would reprint it.

I was asked an excellent question by a Prairewalk Resident named Doug Pentek that I decided to respond to here since I am sure many people have the same questions.

The answer requires a full discussion of the Cedar Lake Road Extension and the plans Round Lake has made for the extension and the plans Lake County are making for it. So thanks to John Gutknecht for the updated map!

First however an overview.

When I took office 4 years ago one of the primary commute methods to Route 60 from Round Lake was 120 to Bacon to 60. Anyone who has lived here longer then 3 years recalls that actually the South end of Bacon was actually more dangerous then the North end. When Lakewood homes was in a first draft stage of the their development we were able to insist that Lakewood homes build the extension of Cedar Lake Road to its present point (#3 of the photo above) from Route 60.

Lake County has on its books the extension of Cedar Lake Road north from 60 all the way to 120. (that's the heavy black line on the map) However money is tight, the project is expensive and referendums for more transportation funds keep failing. So the project is going to be done in stages.

Stage 1 which is the 60 to Bacon Road portion right now is done, only some connection work to the Stage 2 and the cul de sac of Bacon (#5 on the photo)

Stage 2 I am pleased to say will extend north to Townline Road (#2 on the photo) and bids will be going out in October of this year, construction will start in the spring of 2007 and finish in the Fall of 2007. The village is going to improve its portion of Townline Road to Bacon to handle the traffic flow westwards from the T intersection and in front of our new Police and Public Works Facility (#6 on the photo). In attain the village required Neumann Homes and Concord Homes to provide funding to improve and enhance Townline Road East of the intersection all the way to Curran.

Stage 3 is scheduled to be bid out in 2008 and finished in 2009. This is clearly a shame but is a direct consequence of the two failed traffic referendums in the county in the last two years. However when it gets done a traffic light will be built at Townline and Cedar Lake (#2 on the photo), and at 120 and Cedar Lake (#1 on the photo).

So once this all get accomplished Bacon Road will be a cul-de sac on the South End about where it merges with Cedar Lake now (#5 on the photo). There has also been some discussion on making it a dead end on the North End as well.

However to finally get to Mr Pentek's question the state has looked at putting a light at Bacon and 120 and is currently doing a tentative survey of it, but my guess is since within 5 years the need for it will have vanished I am thinking it will not get done. My only advice is don't drive that way, I avoid those intersections if I can.

Road Improvements Along 120 and Curran

I have seen some interesting comments about holding developers accountable for traffic issues. Coincidently I got some pictures of the road improvements that we insited on from Pulte and Centerville as a result of their residential and commercial projects. Centerville assumed responsibility for management of the roadwork project. The roadwork was essentially completed on Friday with the final installation of landscaping and grass mat.

I would like to make a couple of comments about past developments that I was involved with and the traffic issues that we held developers accountable for. As a general rule of thumb traffic improvements rank in the top 3 issues we want to address from a potential developer.

• Lakewood Homes-- They were required to do away with Bacon Road, and build from scratch the intersection, the extension of Cedar Lake northwards from 60 and then dedicate the remaining right away for the Cedar Lake Road extension. Off the top of my head Lakewood forked over in excess of $5 million dollars for traffic improvements from 800 homes.
• Madrona Homes-- In some respects we are not seeing the benefit from the traffic improvements from them yet, but hopefully the foresight the village had to make them set aside the 300 foot right away for the 120 bypass comes to fruition. In addtion we also set aside right away for the Cedar Lake Road extension from 120 to Townline Road. In partnership with Neuman Homes at Prairie Walk they also were required to improve Townline road which is a free benefit to District 46's "sometime" new school. I have no idea how much money the right away is, but its substantial based on roughly 800 homes.
  

I do wish that more could be done to route 60 specifically the light at 60 and Petersen. I did get a copy of the Lake County Transportation Plan for 2006-2011, and intersection improvements are slated for 2008. If the counties traffic refererendum had passed the intersection and many other needed improvements would be here much sooner.

Traffic Warning Number 2!

The second spot (see yesterday's post for the first) we are getting complaints about is making right turns off of 60, and then left turns on to Norwell, then a right onto Raymond to evade traffic on 60.

I have directed that Public Works install stop signs at Arden and Norwell and make it a three way stop sign. With all the appropriate striping. This is where we are going to be running the second part of our "Stop Sign Awareness Program"!
We will have helpful officers making sure that you are obeying the law, and giving you friendly reminders in yellow!

Many thanks for the two maps to Valley Lakes resident John Gutknecht, he was unaware of my nefarious purpose in requesting his google mapping expertise. However he certainly has a talent!

Traffic Warning!

Fair warning! We have been getting numerous complaints about cars racing through the Lakewood neighborhood right off of Cedar Lake Road, turning left on Jonathan, and the left on Kristina and re-emerging on 60 about 10 cars ahead of where they were before. You can see the route on the map that people are taking to move forward in line.

Clever! But its going to cost you. We are going to be running a "Stop Sign Awareness Program" at the intersection. We will have some officers stopping cars who don't obey the sign in the mornings for awhile. With school starting soon we would not want to have cars racing through the streets so we aim to enforce quite strictly! Oh if you live on the streets mentioned, you will pass the test with flying colors. If you seem to be driving down our quiet streets on your daily commute and not obeying traffic laws you may find yourself flunking!

Newspaper Coverage of the Elected Official's Transportation Meeting.

Wednesday night was the elected official meeting at the College of Lake County and there was a lively discussion about priorities for state funding. I can tell you that I spoke up on a couple of areas. Route 60 in general, and 60 & Peterson in particular were the main ones I emphasied.

There was also a lively discussion on transit, where my central points revolved around more parking and double tracking which would give us the ability to run express trains to Chicago on Metra. That would cut an estimated 15 minutes from the 75 minute commute downtown.

In attain under future projects there was a "lively" discussion about Route 53 and its possibility of happening if the state leases or privatized the tollway. Big "if" there however! Of the 800 comments we received from the public comment portion of this process over 20% were about a highway (53) that does not exist. I think its important to at least address the project and get in line if money is to be handed out!

The Daily Herald wrote about the meeting here.

Route 60 and Petersen Intersection Improvements in 2008

I got an excellent email from a Round Lake resident named Sandy Albers about the intersection of Route 60 and Petersen Road. She asked a variety of questions about some other things, but the question about Route 60 and Petersen comes up a lot so I thought it would be an excellent topic for the blog.

Traffic and lane improvements are coming to the intersection with lane improvements with left turn lanes!

To good to be true? So what's the catch? Not until 2008. Route 60 is a state highway and Petersen is a county road so the two entities are co-managing the project which will cost roughly $6.1 million dollars.

Lake County has a very comprehensive plan to improve highways throughout the county. However it boils down to money as always. I can't say it enough that the failure of the transportation referendum last year stretched out so many needed highway improvements was a huge setback for commuters and businesses throughout the county.

Lake County has a very informative website here covering all sorts of projects and timelines with maps for its 5 year 2005-2010 plan. There are all sorts of maps and information which are well worth your time.

To see a complete 102 page PDF of all highway projects in the county use this link. (60 and Peterson is on page 65 and 66)

The New Cedar Lake Road

The Cedar Lake Road Extension and the plans Round Lake has made for the extension and the plans Lake County are making for it. So using the USGS mapping service and a service called Terraserver I was able to find a 2002 aerial picture of the area. Using my limited graphics experience I labeled 7 key areas in the plan.



First however an overview.

When I took office 4 years ago one of the primary commute methods to Route 60 from Round Lake was 120 to Bacon to 60. Anyone who has lived here longer then 3 years recalls that actually the South end of Bacon was actually more dangerous then the North end. When Lakewood homes was in a first draft stage of the their development we were able to insist that Lakewood homes build the extension of Cedar Lake Road to its present point (#3 of the photo above) from Route 60.

Lake County has on its books the extension of Cedar Lake Road north from 60 all the way to 120. (that's the heavy black line on the map) However money is tight, the project is expensive and referendums for more transportation funds keep failing. So the project is going to be done in stages.

Stage 1 which is the 60 to Bacon Road portion right now is done, only some connection work to the Stage 2 and the cul de sac of Bacon (#5 on the photo)

Stage 2 I am pleased to say will extend north to Townline Road (#2 on the photo) and bids went out in October 2005, construction will start in the spring of 2006 and finish in the Fall of 2006. The village is going to improve its portion of Townline Road to Bacon to handle the traffic flow westwards from the T intersection and in front of our new Police and Public Works Facility (#6 on the photo). In attain the village required Neumann Homes and Concord Homes to provide funding to improve and enhance Townline Road East of the intersection all the way to Curran.

Stage 3 is scheduled to be bid out in 2009 and finished in 2010. This is clearly a shame but is a direct consequence of the two failed traffic referendums in the county in the last two years. However when it gets done a traffic light will be built at Townline and Cedar Lake (#2 on the photo), and at 120 and Cedar Lake (#1 on the photo).

So once this all get accomplished Bacon Road will be a cul-de sac on the South End about where it merges with Cedar Lake now (#5 on the photo). There has also been some discussion on making it a dead end on the North End as well.

The Regional Picture for Lake County

The Economic Development arm of the county is a highly effective organization that has slowly been positioning the county to solve many of the underlying problems with our economic base. This organization called Lake County Partners recently retained Deloitte & Touche Consulting to segment its business attraction and retention markets based on the Lake County's strengths and weakness (labor force, site, building availability, cost of doing business, quality of life, business climate, etc.).

• A large concentration of Lake County's resident worker force lives in the northwest quadrant (North of Rte. 60 to the Wisconsin Line, west of Route 21 to the McHenry County line) of the county; they go to work in the southeast quadrant of the county.
• 90 to 95% of these communities' EAV is residential based; the fastest growing non-residential uses in this area are retail and personal services, which pay at the lower end of the wage and salary scale.
• 60% of Lake County's existing businesses require only a high school degree for entry level positions; therefore, Lake County is a net importer of these entry level workers.
• 70,000 Lake County residents with a BA degree or higher exit Lake County daily for work because there are not jobs requiring their skills or knowledge in Lake County so we are a net exporter of knowledge workers;
• There is a dearth of large improved shovel-ready sites for new professional office and industrial locations;
• The greatest opportunity to develop shovel-ready sites is in the central portion of the northwest quadrant;
• The prime barrier to these sites being developed is the lack of a transportation infrastructure that would allow companies to cost effectively move components and workers in and out of the area.

• Deloitte & Touche, and the 120+ Lake County public and private business leaders were involved in the process and they identified bio/pharma corporate headquarters, R&D and professional back-office operations; medical diagnostic equipment/services headquarters, R&D and professional back-office support operations; Professional, Technical, IT, FIRE and Logistical Services' divisional/corporate headquarters and back office support operations as Lake County's target industries.
• These industries are projected to grow faster than the projected average growth rate for all industries, for the next 10 years.
• Deloitte & Touche cautioned Lake County's public and private leadership that its long-term economic future was tied to its ability to redress its transportation system deficiencies and the lack of shovel ready sites.
• The State of Wisconsin and Southeast Wisconsin have targeted the same industries that Deloitte & Touche identified as Lake County's growth industries. They have re-structured their incentive programs to attract these industries and are in the process of finalizing the development of Prairies Wood corporate Park, a 500+ acre improved business park at the Rte 165 Exit of I-94 less than 3 minutes off the Interstate, where companies can efficiently transport raw materials, components, finished goods and labor into and out of the area.
• During peak commute periods; from the Gurnee and Grand Ave. I-94 on-ramp it can take a Lake County resident commuting to his or her job in the Route 137, 60, 22 and Lake Cook corridors 45 to 60 minutes to get to their desk; by heading north from the same on-ramp, those same Lake County residents can be at their desk in the new Prairie Wood Corporate Park at the I-94, Rte 165 off ramp, in 15 minutes.
  

These are some interesting facts about the county but a lot of them revolve around traffic improvements, which I believe is the single biggest issue in this county today.

The Year that was-- 2005

2005 was the year of the Rooster, and here in Round Lake we have plenty to crow over. We have two new Trustee's Brian Brubaker and Bob Del Prato a new Police Chief in Cliff Metaxa and a new Director of Public Works Davis Clark. Some of the other highlights are:

• We finally adopted a new human resources plan that encompasses employee reviews, job descriptions a fair an equitable pay plan.
• Restructuring of the Police Department is well under way, with a modern efficient and more effective police department starting to emerge.
  
• We are moving full speed ahead on the Downtown Development Project and hope to have it done by 2008 (our 100th anniversary)
  
• We have familiar faces in new places with Terre Eyzk moving up into the Chair of the Planning Commission (my old seat), Hans Zigmund moving up into the Chair of the Architectural Review Committee (ARC) and Steve Skinner moving from the ARC to the Planning and Zoning Commission, former trustee Dale Multerer is now the president of the Police Board.
• Sean Gillette led a wonderful group of people who planned and organized the second annual Streets of Summer festival this summer. Lonnie Brooks headlined and 1,000's attended!
• New commercial development is coming online at the Centerville Commons on Route 60 and Cedar Lake Road, Curran Commons at 120 and Curran, and more development at the corner of 134 and Fairfield to go along with the CVS Pharmacy. More will be happening in 2006 as well.
  
• The construction of a new $7 million 35,000 square foot Police and Public Works Station on the corner of Bacon and Townline road. This facility is big enough for our current population and for our future needs. It was designed and built so it can and could expand if needed in the future.
• Many of the housing projects that we have been hearing about for sometime are finally complete or nearly so, with Valley Lakes, Madrona, Lakewood Homes, Bradford Place, and Silver Leaf Glen reaching that point.
  

On a personal note I am thankful for the opportunity you gave me in April 2005 to lead the village for another four years. Serving as Mayor is the single most rewarding thing I have ever done in my professional life, and I thank you for your support. I aim to make Round Lake the best possible place it can be.

120 Bypass and a Map

I had an interesting meeting with a couple of companies looking to get involved in the 120 bypass project. What a surprise! An estimated half a billion dollars, potentially, on the table and consultants are interested. The best part of the meeting was one consultant provided me with a map of the entire corridor from US-94 to IL-60 with the route overlaid on an aerial picture. Makes for interesting viewing. I instantly asked for the map in an electronic version! Which as soon as I get I will have here for our viewing pleasure. There are some interesting observations you can make out about where and how the bypass must flow to make sense.

Commercial Update for Cedar Commons

Loyal reader Brian Schwartz asked me about which stores are going in Cedar Commons (60 and Cedar Lake) At the moment the ones confirmed are Rosati's Pizza, a Bakery/Cafe, a 3,000 square foot grocery store, a chiropractor/physical therapist, tanning salon and a cleaners. In addition there are 5 vacant stores still to be filled. The outlots are First American Bank, and a retail center, and there are ongoing negotiations for a daycare center! There are also 4 outlots still to be leased. The picture was one that I took a few months ago when Clarke Mosquito took me arround the village via helicopter. The intersection is 60 and Cedar Lake and the site I am talking about in this post.

Traffic Counts at 7 Intersections

The Village Board recently ordered new traffic counts on seven intersections in Round Lake. We did this for the International Shopping Center Show we attended last week. However I think its instructive to see what those numbers are and how they have changed since the last time we did this study in 2003. We use these numbers extensively for our discussions with commercial land owners to help them with thier marketing efforts.

The seven intersections are as follows:
134 and Fairfield-- 24,156 cars a day an increase of 13%
134 and Cedar Lake Road-- 19,364 cars a day an increase of 10%
120 and Wilson-- 25,246 cars a day an increase of 8%
120 and Fairfield-- 30,221 cars a day an increase of 8%
120 and Wildspring-- 19,598 cars a day an increase of 22%
60 and Fairfield-- 24,110 cars a day an increase of 3%
60 and Bacon-- 19,202 cars a day an increase of 9%

These numbers are one of a series of numbers used by retailers to determine market suitability for store placement. The other major ones are population figures from the census (the village has done one special census where we went from 5,400, to 10,100 and is doing another in the spring where we anticipate being in the 14-15,000 range), household income, and population inside of radius circles of 1, 3 and 5 miles. By the way I fully intend to blog more about this is the next few weeks.

Helicopter Trip over Round Lake Yesterday

Clarke Mosquito was kind enough to let me tag along on one of their survey trips yesterday. I took about 40 high resolution pictures of various sites on our trip over village. The four pictures are the new police and public works department, the Metra Station, the route 60 and Cedar Lake intersection and Valley Lakes. I took some shots that will illustrate a few things like the 120 bypass route and some other things. There are days when Mayors get to do really cool things! Today was one of those days.

Observations and Clarifications on Traffic Improvements in the Area.

I have noticed a variety of comments to some of my posts on the 120 bypass and decided that rather then answering them piecemeal I would answer them in one larger post.

Since the day I moved here I have been keenly aware of the need for some form of major traffic relief and minor traffic relief as well. The original idea and concept I read about was the route 53 extension. The right of ways and the plans had been bought and studied for nearly 50 years, municipal support was and still is overwhelming. The political realities of the last 20 years in this county have precluded any concerted effort to get the route 53 extension here. Its useless to point fingers and have recriminations now. I don't think the Route 53 bypass will get done in my lifetime. But it is wonderful to have 98% of the county on board with the 120 bypass now!

As many of you know this county for some reason voted down two transportation referendums in the last few years that would have provided over $100 million dollars of infrastructure improvements to the county. I believe this referendum could have gone a long way to improving traffic flow in the county. However it failed and more then likely the county board will never put it on the ballot again because they will be on the next few ballots, but that's politics!

I won't go into the recent transportation summit issues because I have already covered it here and here. However I would like to outline what the village has done for traffic inside its borders.

Cedar Lake Road Extension (article here)
When the village was considering the Lakewood homes annexation we recognized that traffic would be a major issue so we insisted that Lakewood build one third of the counties proposed extension of Cedar Lake south from 120 to 60. This would do away with the ultra dangerous intersection of 60 and Bacon. The Cedar Lake Road extension project is being phased and ultimately will provide a huge traffic relief to North and South commutes. The cost to the taxpayer and the village was zero, Lakewood paid for all the intersection improvements at 60 and Cedar Lake, and the improvements all along the mile long stretch of road.

Traffic Intersection at 60 and Fairfield
We worked closely with the county and state on this project. Even though it was not in the village we were able to illustrate the needs and wishes of our residents. Its certainly a lot better then a 4 way stop sign that it was.

Traffic Intersection at Wilson and 134
Again we worked with the state and county to illustrate the needs for traffic flow management here.

Intersection Improvements at Fairfield and 134
With the new commercial area at this corner (CVS corner) we were able to make the developer improve the turn lanes and make traffic flow smoother through the area. The intersection already had a light but enhanced turn lanes and signals make it easier to manage.

Signalized Intersection at 134 and Cedar Lake
This is one where we made a mistake, the board voted to not allow the state to develop a light there. Then Trustee Kohlmeyer convinced a majority of her colleagues that it would adversely affect some of the businesses in the area. I think we made a mistake here, but that's why we elect people to decide things.

Intersection of Fairfield and Nippersink
When the Valley Lakes PUD was completed in 1997 it had a $400,000 fund set aside for intersection improvements as they related to the Valley Lakes development. When there were a variety of accidents and a fatality at this intersection the board unanimously voted to seek a partnership with Avon Township, Lake County and ourselves to put up a temporary traffic light two-three years in advance of the counties programmed construction of such an intersection and use the $400,000 as our share of the proceeds for the construction.

We recognized that a business was on the corner of the SW side and we attempted to work closely with them and the property ownership to plan the transition including offering planning assistance to move the bins out of the right of way where they currently exist.

This has suddenly become a political hot potato so I won't go into the details, but we will get it done and this intersection will have all the needed intersection improvements which will improve the flow of traffic.

Signals at Rosedale and Cedar Lake Road
We have been able to get funding from the state for a traffic signal at this busy intersection that serves the Round Lake High School. I don't have all the details as to when it will be installed but we will update when I have more information.

The 120 Bypass
This plan stretches from Wildwood and 120 where existing Route 120 narrows to 2 lanes, to Wilson Road near Baxter. The plan flows south of existing 120 and will go over train tracks and avoid the choke points in Grayslake, it will then angle up and through Madrona homes where we have a 300 foot corridor planned for it. There are 4 exits and entrances, Route 45, Allegheny, Fairfield and Wilson. If you want to visualize what it will look like it should be similar to the stretch of highway between 94 and Hunt Club Road on current Route 120.

I am sure I am forgetting some of the improvements but my fingers are getting tired so I will blog and addendum at some later point.