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Daily Herald
February 7, 2002
By Robert McCoppin - Mike Seeling/Daily Herald
Daily Herald Staff Writer
Proposed highway projects in Chicago's suburbs likely will be competing for a smaller share of federal dollars,
which planners warn might continue to delay construction, leaving drivers on clogged roads.
President Bush's proposed budget would cut $236 million from Illinois' share of federal highway funding, which
is about 10 percent of the state's transportation spending.
Though planners say it's too early to tell which projects might be affected, the proposed reduction is more bad
news for an expressway system that is deteriorating and is often clogged with traffic.
In particular, four major highway proposals remain without funds for construction:
ï the Route 53 extension through Lake County,
ï extension of the North-South Tollway through Will County,
ï a western entrance and bypass for O'Hare International Airport,
ï an outerbelt highway through Kane County.
With congressional hearings set to start today on the next six-year authorization of federal transportation funding,
which is due to be passed next year, planners say the clock is ticking.
Comparing the projects, Route 53 lacks the high-powered political backing the other projects appear to have.
Last year, Gov. George Ryan proposed extending the North-South Tollway south from I-55 in Bolingbrook south to
I-80. Ryan and Daley both support western access into O'Hare. And U.S. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert supports
studying an outerbelt highway through western Kane County.
Now, with funding dwindling, critics say it's time to drop the Route 53 proposal because it's at the end of a long
line of unfunded projects.
"Nobody's made the argument that 53 would be the one to build, and you wouldn't pick the one with the most
opposition," said Mike Truppa, a consultant for the Lake County Conservation Foundation.
That opposition has been one of the reasons Route 53 has languished for a decade, and why lawmakers are reluctant
to get behind it.
The proposed Route 53 extension from Lake-Cook Road to Route 120 and to the Tri-State Tollway was one of several
extensions proposed by the Illinois General Assembly as far back as 1993, along with the southern extension of
I-355.
But planning for the southern extension got much further, in part because it has had broader support among residents
and elected officials, according to Dick Adorjan, spokesman for the Illinois Department of Transportation.
The state bought most of the land for both the southern extension of I-355 and the north end of Route 53. Most
of the utilities were moved out of the way for the I-355 plan, and that project was ready to be built as a tollway,
until a court order was issued for further environmental study in 1997.
That delayed the $700 million project, but after further study, the project awaits a federal decision on whether
it can go ahead.
Without a toll increase, the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority soon will have no money to reconstruct existing
roads, let alone extend I-355. However, it is ready to do so if it gets the federal money, officials say.
As I-355 was slowly making progress, the Route 53 project slowed to a snail's pace as the state and the tollway
agency made an unprecedented decision to form an organization to study the project. After four years of study,
a report by the Lake County Transportation Improvement Project concluded extending Route 53 was better than widening
local roads.
Now the project awaits a decision by the governor, who has not disclosed what he will do.
Meanwhile, other projects have received recent pushes.
An agreement last year between the governor and Chicago Mayor Richard Daley to expand O'Hare calls for extending
the Elgin-O'Hare Expressway and creating a western airport entrance, and building a road ringing O'Hare from the
Tri-State Tollway to the Northwest Tollway.
Some parts of those road proposals might be negotiated when federal lawmakers consider a bill to seal the O'Hare
deal this spring.
Likewise, the proposal for the Prairie Parkway, a new highway that would run from I-80 to I-88 through Kane, Kendall
and Grundy counties, got a boost in the form of $15 million for initial study in federal funds authorized in December.
Yet the so-called outerbelt proposal is so preliminary, and would take 10 to 13 years to build, that analysts say
it's not comparable to Route 53.
Whereas land has been purchased for the Route 53 project, outerbelt supporters merely want to establish a potential
route.
Not everyone thinks the Route 53 plan is dead.
It has been building momentum in the past year or two, according to Dave Schulz of Northwestern University's Infrastructure
Technology Institute, who two years ago thought the Route 53 idea was dead.
Many towns and agencies throughout Lake and northwest Cook counties have passed resolutions in favor of the extension,
while opposition primarily comes from three municipalities, some members of the Lake County Board, and anti-sprawl
groups.
Traffic congestion in the area has become worse, and studies have concluded that extending Route 53 would reduce
travel times as much as local road improvements with less impact on homes and the environment.
But the Route 53 extension still needs an estimated $800 million in state and federal funding
"Advocates need to take it to the next level for a financing to get this road built," Schulz said. "They
probably need to find a champion in the Congressional delegation and the state legislature. Until that happens,
I'm not sure it will go anywhere."
To get built in a reasonable time, Schulz said, the Route 53 extension probably needs Congress to include special
funding in the next six-year transportation bill.
Federal lawmakers from Illinois have not requested funding for Route 53, saying the request must first come from
state and local leaders.
Republican Reps. Phil Crane of Wauconda and Mark Kirk of Wilmette, whose constituents would use a Route 53 extension,
both said local consensus is necessary.
The Illinois Department of Transportation does submit prioritized lists of projects for federal funding, but the
governor negotiates with lawmakers over what gets into the budget.
"We can recommend," Adorjan said. "If the General Assembly has projects that get a higher priority,
they tell us. Many of these roads are such a close call, it's a policy decision."
Ultimately, Adorjan said: "The General Assembly and future governors will have to make those choices."