Illinois Tollway Notes

[Revive 755]

As for the Galena Bypass, I hesitate to think that would work. If you tolled something like that, I'm not sure you'd get enough revenue to justify its construction. The existing highway is bad, but I think drivers would find it's also "good enough" when compared to a tolled route.

Probably depends on the day and how much the toll is for the bypass.  Some of my past trips through Galena have been unpleasant enough to make WI 11 look more appealing over US 20.

[3467]

I am sure there will be public comments when they begin the 15 month study. I hope everyone makes suggestions .I was just looking at the tri state rebuild on Ch 7 stream. That's a whole new road along with 490. We might be suggesting rounding errors with the 53 and outer belt .
There really isn't a lot of full access control downstate besides 20 /Galena 30 spur and Jerseyville and a Peoria belt.

[mvak36]

RT 53 was mentioned in  and article in The Daily Herald . It's about the next capital program .I have a tough time posting links here but Google news Illinois Toll way and 2 articles in the last couple of days should pop up.
If there is going to be public suggestions I am sure this forum will provide them.
Mine
53
Illiana
Outer belt
Mini crosstown
US 20
US 30 spur. The 10 mile spur off 88 on page 5 of Illinois Notes
Stevenson
Ike

I think I might have found the article you were referring to: https://www.dailyherald.com/news/20231007/illinois-tollway-launches-new-strategic-and-capital-plan-process-seeks-input

Among the project ideas being floated for the tollway to undertake is Route 53 improvements if the Chicago Bears move to Arlington Heights.

Apologies if someone already posted this.

[JoePCool14]

Sounds like that has more to do with improving the existing section of IL-53 from I-90 to Lake Cook rather than any sort of extension. I'd welcome that, as IL-53 is in bad shape there. Lots of cloverleaves, bad mainline which is presumably reaching End-of-Life, and deteriorated bridge structures/approaches. They are some of the worst I've driven, and only continue to get worse.

[3467]

I don't think they could transfer route 53 to the tollway  unless they do the extension.
It was floated before as part of the extension and dropped.

Thanks for posting the article.

[Ellie]

My top 5 suggestions for the Tollway to pursue, if I'm understanding all this, in no particular order:

   
• Illiana. Would help to relieve a bottleneck on one of the nation's most important highway corridors and provide a desperately needed alternative to the Borman.

Would the Illiana actually help much? Maybe I'm missing something but the route seems to be too far to the south to be of much use to anyone unless they're coming from southwest of Chicago to northeast of it. That seems to be a very small minority of Borman traffic, though. If it went to Michigan City and Morris I could see it as more of a Chicagoland bypass, but the originally planned-route seems very insufficient.

[TheCatalyst31]

My top 5 suggestions for the Tollway to pursue, if I'm understanding all this, in no particular order:

   
• Illiana. Would help to relieve a bottleneck on one of the nation's most important highway corridors and provide a desperately needed alternative to the Borman.

Would the Illiana actually help much? Maybe I'm missing something but the route seems to be too far to the south to be of much use to anyone unless they're coming from southwest of Chicago to northeast of it. That seems to be a very small minority of Borman traffic, though. If it went to Michigan City and Morris I could see it as more of a Chicagoland bypass, but the originally planned-route seems very insufficient.

It would probably pick up some of the Chicago-Indianapolis traffic. The Borman is usually the worst part of that drive, and I bet a lot of drivers would pay a toll to avoid it. (Yes, there's already the Skyway, but you have to deal with downtown Chicago traffic to take that.)

[Rothman]

My top 5 suggestions for the Tollway to pursue, if I'm understanding all this, in no particular order:

   
• Illiana. Would help to relieve a bottleneck on one of the nation's most important highway corridors and provide a desperately needed alternative to the Borman.

Would the Illiana actually help much? Maybe I'm missing something but the route seems to be too far to the south to be of much use to anyone unless they're coming from southwest of Chicago to northeast of it. That seems to be a very small minority of Borman traffic, though. If it went to Michigan City and Morris I could see it as more of a Chicagoland bypass, but the originally planned-route seems very insufficient.

To answer the question: Yes.

[edwaleni]

Illiana from I-80 (Morris) to I-65 (North of Dinwiddie) would probably relieve the Borman from logistics traffic coming out of the 2 global rail yards south of Joliet that need to go to Indy or Danville.  I always thought the Illiana shouldn't end at I-65 but go all the way to Wanatah (US-30 & US-231)  But that is not a ISTHA issue. Indiana sold their toll authority, but could open a bid out to Veolis or another construct/operate consortium for that part. For a complete Borman bypass Indiana would have to leverage the US-20 work at South Bend, but I digress.

I guess I will bite on the tollway and IL-53 for now. To get as far north as IL-22, they (ISTHA) are going to have to do alot of cut and fill and then lower the road with a cut and large fencing, similar to what I-355 does from US-34 (Ogden Ave.) to Hobson Road. I remember the public hearings on I-355 and the people in Downers Grove and Woodridge were more worried about noise pollution. So ISTHA decided to do a cut or sunken highway through that area with lots of trees and high fences to deal with the noise. It worked. The people who live nearby don't complain and even after they added a third lane on each side, the noise was kept manageable.

What I mean by a "cut and fill" on the Lake-Cook end, is simply cut out the wetlands with a deep trench and build a park/forest/trails over the highway. Yes, its expensive, but I don't see any other way to placate the green nimby's other that simply doing what Seattle and some other cities do...."bury the highway" and make the end result even better than what was there before. The only worry I would have is that everyone all the way to IL-120 would want that too. That is just not practical. Stop the cut and fill somewhere near Old IL-53 so it can cross Buffalo Creek.

I do think if they just come out and say they will replace the greenspace, people won't be so objecting. If people make the "sprawl" argument, I would be blunt and say "too late" the sprawl came with out us and now we have to deal with it.

For US-20 to work as a tollroad it would have to add some transporation value other than simply removing the danger of the geometry beyond Galena. That why I believe for the tolls to work it needs a new bridge across the Mississippi and line up with the beltway Iowa is building for Dubuque. Dubuque wants another bridge for downtown, I think that is a waste. Essentially a new toll bridge with limited access back to Freeport.

[Joe The Dragon]

Illiana from I-80 (Morris) to I-65 (North of Dinwiddie) would probably relieve the Borman from logistics traffic coming out of the 2 global rail yards south of Joliet that need to go to Indy or Danville.  I always thought the Illiana shouldn't end at I-65 but go all the way to Wanatah (US-30 & US-231)  But that is not a ISTHA issue. Indiana sold their toll authority, but could open a bid out to Veolis or another construct/operate consortium for that part. For a complete Borman bypass Indiana would have to leverage the US-20 work at South Bend, but I digress.

and Indiana will need to have high speed gateless tolling

also what about building an toll I-394 from I-94/I-294 to to the Illiana as well?

[The Ghostbuster]

Has anyone heard about the Burnham Highway proposal? It seems like it is a successor to the Illiana Expressway. Its website is here: https://www.greatlakesbasintransportation.com/burnhamhighway.

[Rick Powell]

Has anyone heard about the Burnham Highway proposal? It seems like it is a successor to the Illiana Expressway. Its website is here: https://www.greatlakesbasintransportation.com/burnhamhighway.

That is the same group that proposed to build an outer rail belt around the Chicago region and into Indiana and Wisconsin.

[edwaleni]

Has anyone heard about the Burnham Highway proposal? It seems like it is a successor to the Illiana Expressway. Its website is here: https://www.greatlakesbasintransportation.com/burnhamhighway.

That is the same group that proposed to build an outer rail belt around the Chicago region and into Indiana and Wisconsin.

Hopefully they have more money in the bank this time.  When the rail proposal went up for review, they had just over $300 in their checking account. That caused a PR nightmare.

As for the highway it seems to be pretty close to my pitch for a "Illiana Extended" but they go all the way to Michigan City.

I get what these guys are trying to achieve from a highway perspective and it makes total sense, airport or not.

I don't want to get to far into a tangent, but that rail proposal was rejected by every Class 1 railroad. To be blunt, they meet in Chicago for a reason. Nuff said.

[JoePCool14]

Has anyone heard about the Burnham Highway proposal? It seems like it is a successor to the Illiana Expressway. Its website is here: https://www.greatlakesbasintransportation.com/burnhamhighway.

I like that proposed routing. This feels like something that travelers on I-80 could use to bypass Chicagoland altogether and not have it be too inconvenient distance-wise. And it still looks reasonable to use from I-55 and I-57. Too bad this most likely will never happen, at least not to this extent...

[triplemultiplex]

Close to what the Illiana should've looked like.
Probably will meet the same fate.

[3467]

When I say outer belt I take it up to to 90 . Probably same fate but never hurts to make a comment when they take them
I did include projects where ROW could be obtained like the outer belt 53 and a mini crosstown or western ave where there is railroad.
It's tough to find anything else.

[The Ghostbuster]

I agree that is very unlikely this Burnham Highway will ever be built. It is likely just the pipe dream of an advocacy group, and not a legitimate proposal like the Illiana Expressway was.

[JREwing78]

The website for the proposal has little to no information about who's behind the effort. I mean, one of us individually could put something like this together and pose as an advocacy group.

The railroad effort used to have a daydream about making it into Wisconsin, but it appears that's no longer being proposed.
.

[kphoger]

The website for the proposal has little to no information about who's behind the effort. I mean, one of us individually could put something like this together and pose as an advocacy group.

This website?  https://www.greatlakesbasintransportation.com/leadership

[JREwing78]

The website for the proposal has little to no information about who's behind the effort. I mean, one of us individually could put something like this together and pose as an advocacy group.

This website?  https://www.greatlakesbasintransportation.com/leadership

Quickest way to get the correct answer: Be wrong on the internet.

Thanks for the assist!

[ET21]

Was on 294 SB last night and there was a stage change between North Ave and I-88/290. No more express lane SB, we're on new pavement between North Ave and St. Charles Rd.

[Joe The Dragon]

Illiana from I-80 (Morris) to I-65 (North of Dinwiddie) would probably relieve the Borman from logistics traffic coming out of the 2 global rail yards south of Joliet that need to go to Indy or Danville.  I always thought the Illiana shouldn't end at I-65 but go all the way to Wanatah (US-30 & US-231)  But that is not a ISTHA issue. Indiana sold their toll authority, but could open a bid out to Veolis or another construct/operate consortium for that part. For a complete Borman bypass Indiana would have to leverage the US-20 work at South Bend, but I digress.

I guess I will bite on the tollway and IL-53 for now. To get as far north as IL-22, they (ISTHA) are going to have to do alot of cut and fill and then lower the road with a cut and large fencing, similar to what I-355 does from US-34 (Ogden Ave.) to Hobson Road. I remember the public hearings on I-355 and the people in Downers Grove and Woodridge were more worried about noise pollution. So ISTHA decided to do a cut or sunken highway through that area with lots of trees and high fences to deal with the noise. It worked. The people who live nearby don't complain and even after they added a third lane on each side, the noise was kept manageable.

What I mean by a "cut and fill" on the Lake-Cook end, is simply cut out the wetlands with a deep trench and build a park/forest/trails over the highway. Yes, its expensive, but I don't see any other way to placate the green nimby's other that simply doing what Seattle and some other cities do...."bury the highway" and make the end result even better than what was there before. The only worry I would have is that everyone all the way to IL-120 would want that too. That is just not practical. Stop the cut and fill somewhere near Old IL-53 so it can cross Buffalo Creek.

I do think if they just come out and say they will replace the greenspace, people won't be so objecting. If people make the "sprawl" argument, I would be blunt and say "too late" the sprawl came with out us and now we have to deal with it.

For US-20 to work as a tollroad it would have to add some transporation value other than simply removing the danger of the geometry beyond Galena. That why I believe for the tolls to work it needs a new bridge across the Mississippi and line up with the beltway Iowa is building for Dubuque. Dubuque wants another bridge for downtown, I think that is a waste. Essentially a new toll bridge with limited access back to Freeport.

and then the end of freeport bypass to start rockford bypass part?
toll the freeport bypass?
toll the rockford bypass?

[Brandon]

Illiana from I-80 (Morris) to I-65 (North of Dinwiddie) would probably relieve the Borman from logistics traffic coming out of the 2 global rail yards south of Joliet that need to go to Indy or Danville.  I always thought the Illiana shouldn't end at I-65 but go all the way to Wanatah (US-30 & US-231)  But that is not a ISTHA issue. Indiana sold their toll authority, but could open a bid out to Veolis or another construct/operate consortium for that part. For a complete Borman bypass Indiana would have to leverage the US-20 work at South Bend, but I digress.

I guess I will bite on the tollway and IL-53 for now. To get as far north as IL-22, they (ISTHA) are going to have to do alot of cut and fill and then lower the road with a cut and large fencing, similar to what I-355 does from US-34 (Ogden Ave.) to Hobson Road. I remember the public hearings on I-355 and the people in Downers Grove and Woodridge were more worried about noise pollution. So ISTHA decided to do a cut or sunken highway through that area with lots of trees and high fences to deal with the noise. It worked. The people who live nearby don't complain and even after they added a third lane on each side, the noise was kept manageable.

What I mean by a "cut and fill" on the Lake-Cook end, is simply cut out the wetlands with a deep trench and build a park/forest/trails over the highway. Yes, its expensive, but I don't see any other way to placate the green nimby's other that simply doing what Seattle and some other cities do...."bury the highway" and make the end result even better than what was there before. The only worry I would have is that everyone all the way to IL-120 would want that too. That is just not practical. Stop the cut and fill somewhere near Old IL-53 so it can cross Buffalo Creek.

I do think if they just come out and say they will replace the greenspace, people won't be so objecting. If people make the "sprawl" argument, I would be blunt and say "too late" the sprawl came with out us and now we have to deal with it.

For US-20 to work as a tollroad it would have to add some transporation value other than simply removing the danger of the geometry beyond Galena. That why I believe for the tolls to work it needs a new bridge across the Mississippi and line up with the beltway Iowa is building for Dubuque. Dubuque wants another bridge for downtown, I think that is a waste. Essentially a new toll bridge with limited access back to Freeport.

and then the end of freeport bypass to start rockford bypass part?
toll the freeport bypass?
toll the rockford bypass?

Given IDOT's usual lack of maintenance on the Rockford bypass, I'd be in favor of tolling the whole thing.

[Rothman]

Illiana from I-80 (Morris) to I-65 (North of Dinwiddie) would probably relieve the Borman from logistics traffic coming out of the 2 global rail yards south of Joliet that need to go to Indy or Danville.  I always thought the Illiana shouldn't end at I-65 but go all the way to Wanatah (US-30 & US-231)  But that is not a ISTHA issue. Indiana sold their toll authority, but could open a bid out to Veolis or another construct/operate consortium for that part. For a complete Borman bypass Indiana would have to leverage the US-20 work at South Bend, but I digress.

I guess I will bite on the tollway and IL-53 for now. To get as far north as IL-22, they (ISTHA) are going to have to do alot of cut and fill and then lower the road with a cut and large fencing, similar to what I-355 does from US-34 (Ogden Ave.) to Hobson Road. I remember the public hearings on I-355 and the people in Downers Grove and Woodridge were more worried about noise pollution. So ISTHA decided to do a cut or sunken highway through that area with lots of trees and high fences to deal with the noise. It worked. The people who live nearby don't complain and even after they added a third lane on each side, the noise was kept manageable.

What I mean by a "cut and fill" on the Lake-Cook end, is simply cut out the wetlands with a deep trench and build a park/forest/trails over the highway. Yes, its expensive, but I don't see any other way to placate the green nimby's other that simply doing what Seattle and some other cities do...."bury the highway" and make the end result even better than what was there before. The only worry I would have is that everyone all the way to IL-120 would want that too. That is just not practical. Stop the cut and fill somewhere near Old IL-53 so it can cross Buffalo Creek.

I do think if they just come out and say they will replace the greenspace, people won't be so objecting. If people make the "sprawl" argument, I would be blunt and say "too late" the sprawl came with out us and now we have to deal with it.

For US-20 to work as a tollroad it would have to add some transporation value other than simply removing the danger of the geometry beyond Galena. That why I believe for the tolls to work it needs a new bridge across the Mississippi and line up with the beltway Iowa is building for Dubuque. Dubuque wants another bridge for downtown, I think that is a waste. Essentially a new toll bridge with limited access back to Freeport.

and then the end of freeport bypass to start rockford bypass part?
toll the freeport bypass?
toll the rockford bypass?

Given IDOT's usual lack of maintenance on the Rockford bypass, I'd be in favor of tolling the whole thing.

So you can pay more and they still don't maintain it?

[3467]

I think you would have to toll it all including a bridge or just do something limited like Galena. When they take comments I will give them plenty.
How likely probably not but it never hurts to ask.
The tollway is pretty well maintained.
Also it attracted a new Cultivated Meat plant at the old all state location. Easy access to the tri state is a selling point .