Randall Road about noon from the edge of Lake in the Hills (on the east side of the road) on Tuesday, June 24, 2014,.

First from critic “I can’t believe it”:

If you are a regular user of Randall Road you will know this Stop Randall Road Robbery Campaign is a huge joke.

Does the campaign really know anything about traffic control?

I doubt if any of them actually have any technical training on the subject of roadway design.

Route 14 work between Crystal Lake and Woodstock is more of a waste of money.

Just put in a few turn lanes to existing roadways and call it complete.

The traffic light at Randall and Algonquin Roads was in blinking red mode.

Next from Susan, who was helping staff the Woodstock Square tent Sunday afternoon:

It is true that objectors to the proposed waste of tax money on Randall Road project are (probably, can’t speak for all of them) not technically trained in the subject of road design.

Neither are voting members of the County Board.

Board Members are given a pitch by proponents of some project which will cost taxpayers’ money, and it is up to Board Members to perform research.

Is the project is indeed necessary, is the cost is too great even if the project may be desirable, and are proponents of project pitching a budget which is reasonable in relation to cost of other such projects undertaken elsewhere in the country?

It is easy nowadays for citizens to research many aspects of road construction online.

For example, proponents claims of growing population in this County were easily proven to be factually inaccurate, by checking the US Census.

ARTBA.org (American Road And Transportation Builders Association) is a good source for information including average costs to build one mile of various sorts of roads.

The opponents to Randall Road project are objecting on basis of its cost multiple related to that national average cost, and cost related to lack of need.

Every taxpaying citizen has a stake in this, and if taxpayers do not speak up, the only information given to voting Board Members will be information favorable to project proponents.

Randall Road heading toward Crystal Lake through Lake in the Hills.

Finally, from Steve Willson:

Dear “I Can’t Believe It”:

I’m not a traffic engineer, but I’ve been a municipal finance analyst for 35+ years. In that time, I have reviewed literally several billion dollars worth of toll road financings. So when McHenry County said they wanted to spend upwards of $135 million to “fix” 3.5 miles of Randall Road, my ears pricked up.

So I looked at the County’s plans and spoke at length with the head of McDOT. Turns out the County wants to spend $13 million to put in a Continuous Flow Intersection (“CFI”) at Randall and Algonquin.

So I called the traffic engineers on the last several CFIs that have been built. They all said it should cost between $3 million and $5 million. One said to me, and I quote, “Well, maybe $6 million if you have to buy the land.” They all also said, unanimously, that a CFI is a bad choice for a commercial area. Oh, there are also concerns about getting emergency vehicles through a CFI, but the County never asked the local fire departments for their input.

Strike one.

But hidden behind the CFI plan was a plan to spend another $122 million to expand Randall Road, including frontage roads. Now the parking lots along Randall Road were designed to accommodate the traffic they have. That is a basic principle of commercial design, and I’ve also helped to finance a lot of shopping malls. The parking lots are also laid out so you can go from one mall to another without having to go up to Randall Road. That’s a basic principle of urban planning.

In other words, frontage roads are superfluous.

Strike two.

And the cost is $35 million per mile. The American Road & Transportation Builders Association says the average cost for the work the County wants to do is around $9 million per mile.

Strike three.

Next I looked at the County’s justification for the project, which is a projection by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (“CMAP”).

They project the County is suddenly going to start growing like its the 1980s again, even though we haven’t seen that kind of growth in 25 years and even though that is three times the rate predicted by the Census Bureau.

Every projection made by CMAP and its predecessor, NIPC, has been wildly optimistic.

Shortly after CMAP’s projections came out, the Census Bureau released the 2010 numbers showing CMAP’s 2010 projection was way off, and that population in McHenry County was actually declining. So CMAP changed their projections: they plugged the 2010 number into their model without making any other adjustments. In other words, they still project population growth at more than three times the national average, just with a somewhat lower starting number.

Strike four?

Then I looked at the County’s own traffic counts for that corridor of Randall Road. In 2003, the traffic count was 35,000 to 39,300 vehicles per day. In 2013, the traffic count was 34,972 to 38,650 vehicles per day. In other words, traffic volume actually was flat to declining over this period.

Strike five?

Finally, I asked how much analysis was done concerning the economic impact of this project on local businesses during and after construction. I was told by the County’s head engineer, “None. We’re highway engineers. We don’t do economic analysis.” Very reasonable. Except NOBODY at the County did ANY analysis, and several business owners along Randall are complaining bitterly about the likely impact. Lake in the Hills has also complained to the County, passing resolutions opposing the plan.

Strike six?

So, based on these facts, which is the more logical choice:

(a) wait a couple of years and see if new evidence emerges that shows a sudden surge in traffic; or

(b) spend $135 million of the taxpayers’ money right now?

In other words, how many strikes does the County get?