Joe Gottemoller
Another road question asked by County Board Chairman Joe Gottemoller of the four applicants for the remaining term of recently-resigned McHenry County Board member Ken Koehler concerning kicking in county tax dollars to subsidize the extension of Illinois Route 53 north from Lake-Cook Road to Route 176 in Volo.
Gottemoller revealed that Jim Heisler, who was on the interview panel, had been meeting with Lake County officials for something over a year on the subject of extending Route 53.
The cost will be about two and a half billion dollars and the project is $1 billion short.
Lake County officials have asked McHenry County to contribute to the cost of moving the end of the expressway north.
The result, Gottemoller explained, would be an increase in the traffic count on Route 120 to 60,000 cars a day, about the number at the intersection of Algonquin and Randall Roads.
Jeff Thosen
“The road that never was,” Crystal Lake City Councilman and Union banker Jeff Thorsen observed in the beginning of this answer.
“We’ll have to worry about [Illinois State] Route 120,” he continued.
Gottmoller interjected that it might relieve pressure on Randall Road.
Thorsen suggested, “We might want to curtail our support a bit.”
Cameron Hubbard
Financial advisor and Crystal Lake City Councilman Cameron Hubbard thought it “could be a very good thing for McHenry County as far as growth [is concerned].
“It could really help growth in McHenry County,”
Long-time Crystal Lake GOP Precinct Committeeman Tom McDermott seemed to express surprise at the idea: “Wow! A big one.”
Custom home builder John Reinert asked, “Would it benefit the people?”
Answering his own question, he said, “My gut [feeling] is that it would have a positive effect.”
He added, “How long do we wait?”
Extending 53 to 176 would increase load on 120?
Rt 12 would see less traffic as some of it would funnel to 53, but 176 and 120 in our county would see little change in traffic without way more growth first.
It’s getting like the twilight zone around here.
Build it.
This road was supposed to be built decades ago and is far overdue.
If you want McHenry to get good growth you need businesses and transportation.
I am for it.
As I wrote in the post on Randall Road, this type of decision does not have to be gut level:
Well said Steve.
Excellent common sense.
So, if we are going to dump 60,000 cars per day onto Route 120, who is paying for all of the intersection improvements we will need?
The problem with building more expressways as a solution to congestion is that they are counter-productive in the long run.
Expressways bring housing development nearby, which increases the number of cars on the road.
Lake County would see a huge population expansion and would reap all the benefits of it (impact fees, appreciation of house values) and all McHenry County would get is more traffic on our roads.
Interesting. People are leaving McHenry County in droves; people are leaving the State in droves.
SOLUTION?
Build more roads so they can leave more readily?
Gottemoller is a genius!
He has solved all our problems!
It also appears that Walkup is helping him!