Residents, businesses say Route 45 project needed

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Updated: March 11, 2012 8:25AM

The state plans to spend $73 million to expand a roadway that, according to its estimates, will see virtually no increase in traffic between now and 2040 — while major thoroughfares at opposite ends of the project are expected to see significant traffic increases, and no expansions.

But residents and business owners who attended an open house organized by the Illinois Department of Transportation on Tuesday said that was fine. US Route 45 is already so bad, it needs new lanes to catch up to the load it is already carrying.

“I think it needs it,” said Alex Kogan, a Vernon Hills resident. “I actually wish it was done sooner.”

IDOT is considering widening about 4.5 miles of US 45, from Lincolnshire to Vernon Hills, a project that would make the highway two lanes in each direction, with a median, center turn lanes, curbs, gutters and, if paid for by neighboring villages, a nature path on the north side.

The idea is at least five years away. IDOT officials said they have the money to study the project, have about half of the money needed to acquire properties, and no money for construction, all the way through the 2017 budget.

IDOT invited dozens of residents to a community room at the Sullivan Center Tuesday night, with large, detailed prints of the plan’s current layout. Those prints showed the section of the project receiving most of the work is projected to receive the smallest amount of traffic increase.

According to figures from the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, the traffic group that the federal government looks to when paying for projects in this area, US 45 will see no new traffic from the project’s northwest end — Illinois Route 83 in Vernon Hills — to its southeast end — Milwaukee Avenue in Lincolnshire. According to CMAP’s figures:

US 45 carries 16,200 vehicles daily from Milwaukee Avenue to Buffalo Grove Road, a number that estimates say should increase to only 17,000 in 2040.

From Buffalo Grove Road to Butterfield Road, US 45 should carry in 2040 the same 19,500 vehicles that it now handles.

A slight increase can be expected on US 45 from Butterfield to Route 83, where the current 11,700 should rise to 14,000.

This compares to what CMAP expects to happen on Milwaukee. Their figures predict that the current 26,900 cars going from Olde Half Day Road to Illinois Route 22 will jump to 35,000 in 2040; they also expect the 27,900 cars driving from Route 22 to Marriott Drive will rocket to 42,000.

That stretch of Milwaukee is already four lanes with a median. While included in the project area, the state has no plans for expansion there.

John Baczek, IDOT’s project and environmental section chief, said it is on the agency’s wish list.

“It is anticipated to be three lanes in the future,” he said, though there is no money or timeline for that.

Ojas Patel, an IDOT project engineer, said they gave priority to the section for US 45 that should not get any busier because it is already overwhelmed.

“There’s current capacity issues,” he said.

Yvette Manzella, owner of La Rosa Pizzeria in Vernon Hills, said the state’s attention was in the right place. Even though her business will have to close for a time when her section of US 45 gets torn up, she said that was the section that needed work the most.

“It’s needed to be done for a long time,” Manzella said. “Forty-five is horrible to travel on during peak hours.”

Patel said the effort should reduce the number of accidents on that stretch. IDOT’s figures recorded 1,166 total collisions from 2007 to 2009, mostly rear-enders, left-hand turns and sideswipes.

There are no plans for noise walls. At each section, CMAP’s projected decibel levels were below the levels at which a wall would be recommended.