Joliet Herald-News
August 6, 2007

I-355 stretch may compress traffic

Parkway alternate pitchedINTERSTATE EXPANSION

By Guy Tridgell sun-times news group

The lines form as soon as the sun rises.

With each marooned car and truck, the sea of red brake lights grows longer and longer on overwhelmed streets and roads that were barely more than rural routes a generation ago.

Streets and roads such as Wolf Road in Orland Park, Gougar Road in New Lenox, Bell Road in Homer Glen and State Street in Lemont.

The scene is replayed during every commute in the far southwest suburbs: Too much traffic and not enough pavement.

Relief is on the way in the form of the Interstate 355 south extension, 12.5 miles of new highway from Interstate 80 in New Lenox to Interstate 55 in Bolingbrook.

Or is it?

The $738 million toll road will open in November after three years of construction.

For years, the new tollway was touted as the only way to uncork bottled-up suburban traffic struggling to move north and south across the region. Build the road, I-355 supporters insisted, and residents will get a direct route to the job centers in the western suburbs and local congestion will decrease.

Yet four months before I-355's expected debut, anxiety is building.

Traffic push elsewhere?

New Lenox village administrator Russ Loebe is among a growing crowd that wonders if I-355 is going to reduce traffic jams or merely push them onto other roads.
"It is a wonderful economic engine. It's a great transportation project," Loebe said. "But it does create demands on our system."

Whatever the outcome, getting around suburbs such as Orland Park, Homer Glen, Frankfort, Mokena, New Lenox, Lockport and Lemont never will be the same the moment the first tire hits the extended I-355.

Studies prepared by the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority paint a picture of north-south streets flowing freely once I-355 is up and running.

According to the state's traffic estimates, Bell, Lemont, Gougar and Cedar roads will see thousands fewer vehicles a day through 2020 because of I-355, but the east-west roads feeding into I-355 will be pinched, especially the roads with interchanges at I-355 -- 127th Street, Illinois 171, 143rd Street, 159th Street, U.S. 6 and Interstates 80 and 55.

Heading west from Orland Park, for example, 143rd Street is expected to serve 25,000 vehicles a day -- more than double the amount without I-355.

An east-west tradeoff

Randall Blankenhorn, executive director for the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, expects similar impacts on roads stretching from Interstate 55 to Interstate 57.
"People will go east and west if they can get north and south faster," said Blankenhorn, who worked on the I-355 planning studies for the state. "The whole purpose of I-355 was to get traffic off the north-south arterials and to put it onto something meant for longer distances."

For August "Cuzzy" Badali, that's good news.

The president of A&M Cartage in Mokena runs a fleet of 45 trucks about five miles from the future mouth of I-80 in New Lenox.

He sees fewer trips on the Dan Ryan Expressway and the Tri-State Tollway because of I-355.

"It is going to help us a lot down here," Badali said. "It is definitely going to improve the flow of traffic if the tolls don't kill us."

But for locals who rely on quick trips spread over a few miles, I-355 might not always be such a good thing.

Homer Township Fire Protection District Chief Mike Schofield is bracing for the first time one of his ambulances is caught behind traffic queued to enter I-355.

"We need road improvements and we need them quickly," Schofield said. "It's a no-brainer. We know the traffic is coming."

Where's the money?

Like all other road projects in the sprawling Chicago area, finding the money to pay for those improvements will be the challenge.
In New Lenox, the village for years sought federal and state dollars to pay for improvements to streets leading in I-355.

"We have applied for grants year after year after year," Loebe said.

The requests were turned down, largely because the traffic numbers did not warrant spending the money.

New Lenox instead is resorting to pooling sales taxes generated at village businesses to pay for improvements to roads under the state's jurisdiction.

John Greuling, New Lenox resident and president of the Will County Center for Economic Development, said he expects his trips on the "Gougar Expressway" to end when I-355 opens.

But Greuling also admits just getting to I-355 might not be as easy as he would like.

"Government, unfortunately, does not have enough money to keep up," he said. "It makes us a little nervous."