Is there any truth to this

[tribar]

From Wikipedia

The village of Wauconda hired an engineering firm in 2014 to suggest improvements to the congested interchange with U.S. 12. However, the village of Wauconda seemed more interested in more development along Rand Rand than improving traffic flow. The village of Wauconda proposed eliminating the interchange and converting to an at grade intersection with dual left turn lanes at each leg, 2 lanes in each direction for IL 176, 3 lanes in each direction of U.S. 12, and developing the frontage of the intersection. 300 million dollars is the estimated cost to convert the U.S. 12 interchange with IL 176 and the U.S. 12 interchange with IL 59 to at grade signalized arterial intersections, which none of the funding would come from IDOT. [3] [4]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois_Route_176

This would be a terrible idea.  An extra lane in each direction would be helpful but at the same time this would cause more problems than it would fix.  The Bonner Road intersection to the north is terrible.  Tuning 176 into an at-grade intersection would be 1000x
worse.

Does anyone have any more information about this?   

[hobsini2]

Not to mention how close it is to the Rt 59 interchange.

[tribar]

Not to mention how close it is to the Rt 59 interchange.

Another good point.  Why would that one stay and the 176 one would go?  59 interchange doesn't see nearly as much traffic.

[Revive 755]

Another good point.  Why would that one stay and the 176 one would go?  59 interchange doesn't see nearly as much traffic.

They did actually do the study:  Link (at grade US 12/IL 176 intersection is on Page 19/26, discussion is on Page 6/26

Although it is a preliminary study, there a few issues that already stand out:

1) Given the skew of the intersection, it is likely that IDOT would end up prohibiting right turns on red for the IL 176 right turns onto US 12.

2) The existing EB IL 176 to SB US 12 right turn volume would likely warrant a dual right. (Consideration of a dual right can start around 300 vph, the volume shown for the AM peak is 540.)

3) They did not provide peak hour volumes for the through movements on US 12 - which would be critical to proper design of the intersection.

4) The count shown on US 12 south of IL 176 is less than that shown on IDOT's traffic volume map (which has 38,800 in 2013)

5) Given the new developments beginning to occur in Lake County, I suspect the 2040 volume projections could be on the low side.

Long term plans had been to convert the US 12 interchange with IL 176 into a SPUI, which could also free up developable land.

The study does talk about modifying the IL 59 interchange with US 12.  The design vaguely/described shown though would require rerouting NB IL 59 through Wauconda as it wipes out the loop NB IL 59 uses to merge with US 12.

[sipes23]

This is beyond a bad idea. I drove straight through this intersection on my way to work in both the US 12 and IL 176 direction for many years in two different stints. IL 176 is one of the problems in Lake County. Making both it and 12 worse is ultra dumb.

I'd say that putting an interchange on US 12 and Bonner Road would be a much better idea, and that's not very feasible.

[getemngo]

Is there any truth to this

The Wikipedia section that you quoted has two citations, both of which are publicly accessible and one of which (the one Revive 755 linked) is from a .gov website. Wikipedia isn't perfect, but checking the article's sources is a pretty easy way to find your answer.

[dietermoreno]

I read this in the paper and it pissed me off almost as much as the mayor of Hawthorn Woods, so I added it to the 176 wiki.  I live in Wauconda, and think this proposal is unacceptable.  The mayor of Wauconda obviously is far out of touch with his citizens if he doesn't get stuck in traffic on 176 in the vicinity of 12, the entrance to Jewel, brown St., and the entrance to Chase.  This has to be one of the worst planned intersections in Lake County.  You thought the 5 way intersection in Crystal Lake with Rt 31, Rt 176, and Terracotta was bad?  This "intersection" in Wauconda is pretty much a "7 way intersection".

Incorporate Rt 12 frontage north of bonner to 120 into the Wauconda village limits and problem solved.  5.5 miles of space for development available north of bonner.

[silverback1065]

is it ever a good idea to downgrade an interchange to an at grade signalized intersection in an urban area? I wish city officials, particularly the mayor, actually knew something about traffic engineering.  Downgrading this intersection could even make it a more dangerous intersection.  It sounds like they just want people to stop so they can shop at all the stuff they want along the corridor. 

[route17fan]

I'm not sure where this belongs - on the IL 176 page, it lists IL 176 as beginning in Marengo, IL. I looked up Marengo to see if it had the same "history" as Marengo, Ohio and found this sentence in the history section:

Help i am locked in someones basement, they are from Marengo, Illinois.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marengo,_Illinois

As the subject is "Is there any truth to this" - I figured I would throw this in to the mix - just in case it was a plea for help.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Is there any truth to the fact that there are way too many Illinois threads in this section of the board?

[froggie]

One could ask the same thing about the Central States section and Oklahoma...

[rte66man]

Is there any truth to the fact that there are way too many Illinois threads in this section of the board?

   

[SSOWorld]

Maybe we need a regional board for Illinois alone

[tribar]

Maybe we need a regional board for Illinois alone

Great Idea!

[Brandon]

Maybe we need a regional board for Illinois alone

Just what we need, a FIB board.

[SSOWorld]

I was being sarcastic...

[route17fan]

Well the person in the basement must have been released as the notation in the Marengo, IL Wikipedia site has the notation deleted.