Will County convinced the state to fix Interstate 80
The Southland should do the same for I-57
The good news is that new warehouse and intermodal developments throughout the south suburbs are creating jobs and strengthening the tax base.
The bad news is that truck traffic is increasing on Interstate 57 and congestion and safety are likely to worsen in coming years. The interstate narrows to two lanes from three in each direction near Country Club Hills and there are no plans to improve the aging highway any time soon.
“Capacity improvements along Interstate 57 south of Interstate 80 are not being studied at this time,” Illinois Department of Transportation representative Maria Castaneda told me.
An evening rush hour bottleneck seems likely to endure for years, aggravating commuters eager to get home to Matteson and other communities.
“I-57 south of I-80 backs up almost on a daily basis,” said Kristi DeLaurentiis, executive director of the South Suburban Mayors and Managers Association.
Traffic on I-57 is likely to get much worse before it begins to get better. Amazon is operating huge facilities in University
Park, Monee and Matteson. Giant industrial buildings seem to be popping up along I-57 the way flowers bloomed on the prairie when pioneers settled the land in the 1800s.
Yet, plans to widen and improve the region’s major northsouth interstate are not even on any drawing board.
“The department will continue to monitor traffic volumes along this route and consider capacity improvement at some point in the future among similar improvement needs throughout the region,” Castaneda said.
About 89,000 vehicles per day travel I-57 near I-80 on average, according to IDOT. How much will traffic increase in the next decade as municipalities welcome developers of commercial and residential projects?
“With the intermodal centers
coming in, the increased truck traffic is going to put a lot of demand on the existing highways,” DeLaurentiis said. “We should be planning for the future.”
The hard reality is that it can take years of coordinated efforts to persuade transportation authorities to improve a highway, then several more years to arrange engineering, design and financing for the work. A conservative estimate is that it would take at least six years before motorists could see I-57 widened and improved south of I-80 once the project gets a green light.
Local officials should be working now to get the ball rolling by gathering to discuss a prolonged campaign to get I-57 on the radar of transportation officials who authorize projects and lawmakers who control purse strings.
South suburban mayors, business leaders, labor unions and others would be wise to follow the example set by Will County leaders who successfully lobbied for years to highlight the need to improve I-80.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker and others recently visited New Lenox to announce plans to spend $1.2 billion over the next six years to improve 18 miles of I-80 through Will County. Work has begun to replace bridges near downtown Joliet that are more than 50 years old.
Unions bought billboards warning that deteriorated bridges scored poor safety ratings. The advertising may have frightened many into falsely believing the bridges were on the brink of collapse, but it was an effective use of money to influence public opinion.
The billboards followed a series of town hall meetings and a citizen-led effort to put the issue on the front burner. Community members turned out in droves and heard testimonials from people who lost loved ones or who were injured themselves because of crashes on I-80.
Panels of lawmakers and transportation authorities shifted uncomfortably at tables as they faced members of the public who feared for their safety. People wanted to know how soon I-80 could be fixed, and why more developments kept being approved that added more traffic to crowded roads.
Southland civic leaders need to get their heads in the game and start working on a similar campaign to emphasize the need for I-57 improvements to address traffic safety and other concerns.
People in Will County spent hundreds of hours over many years and millions of dollars on traffic impact studies, freight and mobility analyses and public safety awareness campaigns to show the need for I-80 improvements before the governor dropped by for a photo op.
Southland officials can thank Will County for doing the heavy lifting by getting legislators to approve the $45 billion Rebuild Illinois infrastructure program. Unless the region starts working now to stake its place in line, there may not be money available to improve I-57 for a long, long time.
Parents will miss many of their children’s activities because they will be sitting in a bottleneck on I-57 while trying to get home. Meanwhile, the state will spend millions improving highways elsewhere because local leaders got together years ago and demanded action.
I think the state should widen I-57 to three lanes in each direction at least as far south as Peotone, near the site of the proposed South Suburban Airport. Lawmakers have authorized spending about $200 million to build a new I-57 interchange near mile marker 332, or Eagle Lake Road.
IDOT expects to launch a preliminary engineering study for the new interchange in 2022, Castaneda said. Such studies typically take two to three years to complete, she said.
“Once that study is completed it then moves into design and land acquisition, which is another two to three years until plans would be ready for construction,” she said.
Big highway projects take time. There are no shortcuts or steps you can skip once one decides to pursue a project.
The point about I-57 is that it should be improved now to address safety and capacity concerns. But there is no telling how long people will have to wait for improvements because no clock has started for the work. No one is talking publicly about the need.
Southland civic leaders should start a campaign to raise awareness about the need to improve I-57 south of I-80.