McHenry County Blog

This article is about an interchange in South Suburbn Justice.

When I read that the Route 20 Northwest Tollway interchange was going to be improved, I immediately thought of House Speaker Mike Madigan.

When he drives from his home in Chicago to his home in Lake Geneva, he takes the tollway to Hampshire’s interchange, then up Route 20 to Route 23, then drives north to Lake Geneva.

A couple of years ago I filed a Freedom of Information request for communications about the interchange improvement and got zilch.

David Kidwell, in his Sunday Chicago Tribune article entitled,

In Justice deal, all roads lead to Madigan
Illinois House speaker’s clients involved in development linked to village’s proposed tollway interchange

points out that Madigan called the Governor’s Office about the improvement in Justice.

Every reason to believe Democrat Madigan would do the same with regard to the Route 20 interchange improvement, if he had a role.

$92 million is earmarked for the Algonquin Bypass. When first proposed it would have cost half that much.

IDOT visualization of the four-lane highway that will be built from Lily Pond Road to Route 176.

$63 million will be spent to make Route 14 four lanes all the way from Crystal Lake to Woodstock, where it will link up with the bypass constructed by Governor William Stratton while he was in office fifty-some years ago.

$16.6 million will go toward reconstructing the interchange at Route 47 and I-90 in Huntley, presumably to allow traffic to get on the Interstate going west to Rockford and to allow eastbound traffic to get off at Huntley.

This is part of a $12.8 billion highway program unveiled by Governor Pat Quinn yesterday.

Every place you see rows of crops where you don’t expect them, know that it’s a tax dodge for a developer or a land speculator.

Farmed land of more than ten acres gets a really hefty property tax break.

This was taken hearing toward Route 53 on the Chicagoland’s Northwest Tollway.

I had to check and see if I had posted this message before and, guess what, I found I had.

But it was on a tee shirt I saw at Disney World in 2006.

Obviously a take off on

First I found it close-up.

When were driving home from the Old Capitol Art Fair, I saw it on a Wisconsin car headed toward Chicago on the Northwest Tollway.

The image of the bumper sticker is fuzzy, but that’s probably appropriate since lots of us have some trouble understanding His message.

= = = = =
The picture of the Old Capitol Art Fair in mid-May was taken from the southeast side of the Old State Capitol. The metal palm trees are certainly fascinating.

There’s a tollway fence next to the Rockford stretch, but, when I saw all the white fog behind it, all I could think of was

It was December 26th about 2 PM and we were on our way to the Wisconsin Dells for a cut-rate water park experience.

Yes, I know it is the Jane Addams Tollway now.

Illinois’ dysfunctional Governor, Rod Blagojevich (a “D,” in case you missed that fact) got the credit for the name change, although Blagojevich Impeachment Committee Chair Barbara Flynn Currie sponsored the naming resolution. (I’d not the old name at least provided travelers directional information.)

And, that’s not all that is dysfunctional.

The tollway, on which the governor recently toyed on FBI tapes with expanding in order to shake down a highway contractor, isn’t working the way it should.

Or, maybe it is working the way it was intended.

I remember Governor Jim Thompson’s first tollway director was one of his state police body guards during the 1976 campaign. He did a marvelous job of tightening things up, getting rid of people who didn’t do anything. Stuff like that.

Thompson replaced him with his fund raiser.

In any event, here’s what U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s press release on Blagojevich’s arrest day said about the governor’s use of the tollway for fund raising purposes:

“…on October 6, Blagojevich told Individual A that he expected Highway Contractor 1 to raise $500,000 in contributions and that he was willing to commit additional state money to a Tollway project – beyond $1.8 billion that Blagojevich announced on October15 – but was waiting to see how much money the contractor raised for Friends of Blagojevich.”

We drove to the Wisconsin Dells the day after Christmas.

The fog was bad and the road beyond Madison was bumpy.

But the worst part of the trip was playing dodge the pothole, mainly in the McHenry County portion of the trip. (We got on the tollway at Route 20.)

With SUVs barreling along in the passing lane heedless to the menace of the fog caused by the warm temperatures on the snow-covered fields, my wife was jinking the car around like fighter plane under attack. (Well, maybe not that much.)

You can see the problem is widespread because there has been an attempt to patch large portions.

It appears that the entire upper layer of asphalt is peeling off, one pothole at a time.

We decided to eat lunch at the Belvidere Tollway Oasis.

I was surprised to find a booth over the road with three tollway employees. After checking out whether we had both I-PASS transponders registered to a current credit card, I told them how bad the westbound lanes were.

One thought it was because of the snowplowing. (On the way back we found potholes in the eastbound lane, but not nearly as many.)

I asked for a form upon which I could make a complaint about the potholes.

One woman asked the other two, but none had ever heard of such a piece of paper at this facility.

The tollway bosses were willing to arrange for us to pay tolls, but input of a negative persuasion apparently could not even make it to the wastepaper basket in Belvidere, let alone headquarters.

As I walked away, I noticed the Tollway’s new superman symbol.

There was no indication that he had the kind of cancers that affect the highway under his feet.

Let me speculate that the tollways road inspectors were inadequate when the road builder was laying down the most recent layer of asphalt.

I’ll ask the tollway folks who had the contract and then check out the campaign contributions before and after.

And, I’ll ask those of you who travel other Interstate highways in Illinois whether you have seen potholes like the one you see above.

I have not seen worse roads since the Village of Bull Valley‘s, which are truly better for cattle than cars.

There’s a tollway fence next to the Rockford stretch, but, when I saw all the white fog behind it, all I could think of was

It was December 26th about 2 PM and we were on our way to the Wisconsin Dells for a cut-rate water park experience.

Yes, I know it is the Jane Addams Tollway now.

Illinois’ dysfunctional Governor, Rod Blagojevich (a “D,” in case you missed that fact) got the credit for the name change, although Blagojevich Impeachment Committee Chair Barbara Flynn Currie sponsored the naming resolution. (I’d not the old name at least provided travelers directional information.)

And, that’s not all that is dysfunctional.

The tollway, on which the governor recently toyed on FBI tapes with expanding in order to shake down a highway contractor, isn’t working the way it should.

Or, maybe it is working the way it was intended.

I remember Governor Jim Thompson’s first tollway director was one of his state police body guards during the 1976 campaign. He did a marvelous job of tightening things up, getting rid of people who didn’t do anything. Stuff like that.

Thompson replaced him with his fund raiser.

In any event, here’s what U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s press release on Blagojevich’s arrest day said about the governor’s use of the tollway for fund raising purposes:

“…on October 6, Blagojevich told Individual A that he expected Highway Contractor 1 to raise $500,000 in contributions and that he was willing to commit additional state money to a Tollway project – beyond $1.8 billion that Blagojevich announced on October15 – but was waiting to see how much money the contractor raised for Friends of Blagojevich.”

We drove to the Wisconsin Dells the day after Christmas.

The fog was bad and the road beyond Madison was bumpy.

But the worst part of the trip was playing dodge the pothole, mainly in the McHenry County portion of the trip. (We got on the tollway at Route 20.)

With SUVs barreling along in the passing lane heedless to the menace of the fog caused by the warm temperatures on the snow-covered fields, my wife was jinking the car around like fighter plane under attack. (Well, maybe not that much.)

You can see the problem is widespread because there has been an attempt to patch large portions.

It appears that the entire upper layer of asphalt is peeling off, one pothole at a time.

We decided to eat lunch at the Belvidere Tollway Oasis.

I was surprised to find a booth over the road with three tollway employees. After checking out whether we had both I-PASS transponders registered to a current credit card, I told them how bad the westbound lanes were.

One thought it was because of the snowplowing. (On the way back we found potholes in the eastbound lane, but not nearly as many.)

I asked for a form upon which I could make a complaint about the potholes.

One woman asked the other two, but none had ever heard of such a piece of paper at this facility.

The tollway bosses were willing to arrange for us to pay tolls, but input of a negative persuasion apparently could not even make it to the wastepaper basket in Belvidere, let alone headquarters.

As I walked away, I noticed the Tollway’s new superman symbol.

There was no indication that he had the kind of cancers that affect the highway under his feet.

Let me speculate that the tollways road inspectors were inadequate when the road builder was laying down the most recent layer of asphalt.

I’ll ask the tollway folks who had the contract and then check out the campaign contributions before and after.

And, I’ll ask those of you who travel other Interstate highways in Illinois whether you have seen potholes like the one you see above.

I have not seen worse roads since the Village of Bull Valley‘s, which are truly better for cattle than cars.

We McHenry County “Subjects” of the Illinois Tollway barons have long been forced to labor in the fields while others got the benefits of our tolls on the long-since paid for Northwest Tollway.

We have one state highway with no access.

That’s Route 23.

We have another—Route 47—with access only from the east. (Yes, I know it is in Kane County, but most traffic originates in McHenry County.)

Want to drive to Rockford on a four-lane highway?

You have to take the back roads to Route 20 in Hampshire.

Tollway officials insist on a complete re-configuration of how Route 47 crosses the Tollway before western entrance and exists are built.

And a good chunk of local money is required.

Northwest Herald reporter David Fitzgerald wrote just this week that the Tollway expects “half of the $65.7 million interchange” to come from local funds.

The point of the story was that Huntley’s $5,000 a month lobbyist, Kim Morreale, had convinced the Tollway to pony up half of the cost.

But look what happened in Winnebago County.

I’ll quote just one sentence from Rockford Register-Star reporter Zack Creglow’s Thursday story:

“The $19.5 million project, paid with federal and state dollars, took about a year to construct.”

Anybody notice a disconnect between what is happening in McHenry County with Route 47 and what’s happening with the Route 173 exchange north of Rockford?

It’s obvious that the animals on the farm in McHenry County still walk on all fours, while those in Winnebago County stand upright.

= = = = =
The photograph is of the Northwest Tollway looking west from Route 47, where looking is all one can do because of no westbound entrance.

We McHenry County “Subjects” of the Illinois Tollway barons have long been forced to labor in the fields while others got the benefits of our tolls on the long-since paid for Northwest Tollway.

We have one state highway with no access.

That’s Route 23.

We have another—Route 47—with access only from the east. (Yes, I know it is in Kane County, but most traffic originates in McHenry County.)

Want to drive to Rockford on a four-lane highway?

You have to take the back roads to Route 20 in Hampshire.

Tollway officials insist on a complete re-configuration of how Route 47 crosses the Tollway before western entrance and exists are built.

And a good chunk of local money is required.

Northwest Herald reporter David Fitzgerald wrote just this week that the Tollway expects “half of the $65.7 million interchange” to come from local funds.

The point of the story was that Huntley’s $5,000 a month lobbyist, Kim Morreale, had convinced the Tollway to pony up half of the cost.

But look what happened in Winnebago County.

I’ll quote just one sentence from Rockford Register-Star reporter Zack Creglow’s Thursday story:

“The $19.5 million project, paid with federal and state dollars, took about a year to construct.”

Anybody notice a disconnect between what is happening in McHenry County with Route 47 and what’s happening with the Route 173 exchange north of Rockford?

It’s obvious that the animals on the farm in McHenry County still walk on all fours, while those in Winnebago County stand upright.

= = = = =
The photograph is of the Northwest Tollway looking west from Route 47, where looking is all one can do because of no westbound entrance.