Why do IDOT Districts 2-9 have so many differences from District 1?

[ChiMilNet]

Being from the Chicago Area, I always find it fascinating to travel downstate and be reminded how different the rest of the state of Illinois is from outside the "collar counties". One thing that is quite apparent is the difference is highway construction. Here are just a few items I've noticed that IDOT Districts 2-9 do differently than District 1:

-All relatively recent stoplight back plate installations (I'd say about the past ~7 years) in D1 are black, while D2-9 continue to use yellow back plates.
-The positioning of the stoplights on the masts are different. D1 has them aligned with the roadway striping while D2-9 has them aligned with the center of the roadway lanes.
-Stoplight pole installations in D1 have "cover" around the base while D2-9 do not (minor item, but something I've noticed).
-Highways signing on stoplight masts. In D1, capital letters only appear on the first letter of a road name (ex: "US Route 20"). In D2-9, all letters are in caps (ex: "US ROUTE 20").
-Highway lighting (non high-mast). In D1, virtually all non-high mast lighting installations done are either aluminum truss arm poles or aluminum davit poles. In D2-9, most aluminum truss arm poles are older installations that have been or are being phased out (although they lately seem to be making a comeback in D8, especially along I-255), and most new installations are aluminum or steel davit poles or tenon mount poles (tenon mount poles are virtually nowhere to be found in D1).
-Highway lighting (high mast). In D1, high mast lighting is always laid out opposite of each other in parallel on both sides of the road in which only the side of the high mast tower facing the roadway is supplied with lighting. In D2-9, the high mast lighting appears to be more sporadic and all high masts contain lighting equally throughout.
-Striping. In D1, highways seem to have diagonal striping at interchanges at the exit gore points. In D2-9, none of this diagonal striping appears to exist (at least on rural highways).

If there are any other differences, please feel free to list them. However, my main question is if anyone here can provide insight as to why the IDOT Districts outside Chicago seem to have so many differences in highway construction methods? (some downstate probably look at it the other way around.) This is just something I've been curious about.

[SSOWorld]

$$$$$

IDOT focuses on D1 with all of its funding (due to political influence) - and there isn't much to begin with thus the other districts seem to get shafted. 

[Brandon]

Because each IDOT district is a bit independent from Springfield and from each other.  There are other things that each district does differently.  D-1 happens to have a lot of stasis and stubbornness.

[3467]

http://capitolfax.com/2015/02/13/indiana-also-suspends-illiana-project/

It relates to Dist 1 . New DOT wants more money for D-1 and kill the Illiana. I really don't think this Gov will have much long term effect on anything so the Illiana may very well survive

[I-39]

In Illinois, there is Chicago................ and then there's everyone else.

Chicago gets the lion share of attention and funding, and the rest of the state gets whatever scraps are left over.

That is all you need to know.

[CtrlAltDel]

Chicago gets the lion share of attention and funding, and the rest of the state gets whatever scraps are left over.

Not that this is inherently unfair. IDOT Region 1 contains almost 2/3 of the state's population.

[GCrites]

And what percentage of the state's tax revenues come from the Chicagoland area?

[I-39]

Chicago gets the lion share of attention and funding, and the rest of the state gets whatever scraps are left over.

Not that this is inherently unfair. IDOT Region 1 contains almost 2/3 of the state's population.

And what percentage of the state's tax revenues come from the Chicagoland area?

I understand Chicagoland contains over 60% of the states population, and pays more tax revenue, but that is not a excuse to ignore the rest of the state. There is too much of an imbalance right now. The rest of the states have needs too.

[ChiMilNet]

Chicago gets the lion share of attention and funding, and the rest of the state gets whatever scraps are left over.

Not that this is inherently unfair. IDOT Region 1 contains almost 2/3 of the state's population.

And what percentage of the state's tax revenues come from the Chicagoland area?

I understand Chicagoland contains over 60% of the states population, and pays more tax revenue, but that is not a excuse to ignore the rest of the state. There is too much of an imbalance right now. The rest of the states have needs too.

The thing that gets me is that, despite what I am sure is a disproportionate amount of funding for D1 (though the population and tax base of D1 does, IMO, deserve some consideration in this as well), I just find it odd that a number of the differences in construction standards appear just to be different "for the sake of being different". I don't know any other state that quite seems to be this way with differences between districts, at least to this extreme.

[I-39]

Chicago gets the lion share of attention and funding, and the rest of the state gets whatever scraps are left over.

Not that this is inherently unfair. IDOT Region 1 contains almost 2/3 of the state's population.

And what percentage of the state's tax revenues come from the Chicagoland area?

I understand Chicagoland contains over 60% of the states population, and pays more tax revenue, but that is not a excuse to ignore the rest of the state. There is too much of an imbalance right now. The rest of the states have needs too.

The thing that gets me is that, despite what I am sure is a disproportionate amount of funding for D1 (though the population and tax base of D1 does, IMO, deserve some consideration in this as well), I just find it odd that a number of the differences in construction standards appear just to be different "for the sake of being different". I don't know any other state that quite seems to be this way with differences between districts, at least to this extreme.

I get what your saying. Chicago is very different from the rest of the state, so it would make sense that their design standards are different.

[CtrlAltDel]

And what percentage of the state's tax revenues come from the Chicagoland area?

Best I could find was data from 2009. So it's a bit old. The amounts refer to personal income and sales taxes.


Cook county: 40% of population, pays 40% of taxes
Collar counties: 25% of population, pays 30% of taxes
Downstate: 35% population, pays 30% taxes

To be honest, I don't think these are different enough to be worried about. The inclusion of corporate taxes might skew things a bit though. As for spending, I haven't found anything yet that's more recent than 1987 about where money is spent. (ETA: I have since learned that the 1987 report caused some political backlash, so they haven't updated it since.)

Still, though, I would like to point out that the most of the roads of the state are outside the Chicago area, if only because the rest of the state takes up more land, and so an equitable spending plan would need to compensate for that, at least with respect to roads.

[3467]

The "deal" is downstate gets proportionally more highway funds because the Chicago area has fewer road miles and gets transit money It has been certain Chicagoans who have tried to change it ..Most notably the new IDOT nominee

[tkiller314]

Going on a tangent off the original topic, I do know that the city of Dubuque is working on the "Southwest Arterial" to complement the Northwest Arterial in place. This fills in a small portion of the gap in what is planned to be something of an expressway.

http://www.cityofdubuque.org/1225/Southwest-Arterial-Project

That being said, this does not solve the great problem of crossing the remaining landscape and is not signed to be US 20.

[J N Winkler]

In regard to design standards, Illinois DOT District 1 has its own signing and marking manual.  It is not online, and I have only seen excerpts from it, but it lays out a Chicagoland style for guide signs on the expressways and toll roads.

[Rick Powell]

The "deal" is downstate gets proportionally more highway funds because the Chicago area has fewer road miles and gets transit money It has been certain Chicagoans who have tried to change it ..Most notably the new IDOT nominee

The exact formula is 55% to be divided between the downstate districts and 45% to D1.  Highway funding only; the lion's share of state transit funding (such as it is) goes to the RTA in Chicagoland.  The 55/45 formula, called "arbitrary" by some, has been in place at least since the Edgar administration, and actually tries to strike a balance between the 2/3 of population of Chicago and the collars vs. the rest of the state, and the fact that downstate has 80% of the centerline highway mileage.  If there are discussions about changing the formula, it will be interesting to see what justifications are given, or what some think the formula "should" be.

[Brandon]

The "deal" is downstate gets proportionally more highway funds because the Chicago area has fewer road miles and gets transit money It has been certain Chicagoans who have tried to change it ..Most notably the new IDOT nominee

The exact formula is 55% to be divided between the downstate districts and 45% to D1.  Highway funding only; the lion's share of state transit funding (such as it is) goes to the RTA in Chicagoland.  The 55/45 formula, called "arbitrary" by some, has been in place at least since the Edgar administration, and actually tries to strike a balance between the 2/3 of population of Chicago and the collars vs. the rest of the state, and the fact that downstate has 80% of the centerline highway mileage.  If there are discussions about changing the formula, it will be interesting to see what justifications are given, or what some think the formula "should" be.

The biggest problem, isn't between D1 and D2-9, but within D1.  Cook and DuPage (but moreso Cook) seem to get the lions share of that money with D1 seemingly reluctant to spend much of it in Lake, McHenry, Kane, and Will.  Nevermind that Lake, Kane, and Will have seen the most rapid growth in the past couple of decades.  It practically took pulling teeth to get I-55 widened to six lanes from Weber Road to I-80 during a time when the ISTHA roads (I-94, I-90, and I-88) were all six lanes to Waukegan, Elgin, and Aurora.  D3 is ready with I-80 to widen it to six lanes out to Morris when D1 finally gets off its ass and figures out how to widen I-80 to six lanes west of US-30.  The counties, on the other hand, have had enough of this bullshit from D1 and have better quality roads than D1 does in these areas.  Compare Randall and Kirk Roads with IL-31 and IL-25, and even IL-59 as an example.