Tollway Hike Key To Funding Route 47 Full Interchange

A toll hike the Illinois Tollway is proposing maybe bad news for drivers, but it’s good news for the .

The 35-cent hike would allow the tollway to build a full interchange at Route 47 and Interstate 90 a few years ahead of schedule, said Rocco Zucchero, a tollway spokesman.

Under the tollway’s current capital project program, the Route 47 full interchange would not be built until 2013 or 2014, Zucchero said. The tollway has already spent the allotted amount of money it can spend on the project and must wait a few years to precede, he said.

An infusion of $12 million, the amount a toll hike would generate, would allow the tollway to build the Route 47 full interchange by 2012, Zucchero said, following a public hearing Friday.

The village of Huntley is a partner with the tollway, the Illinois Department of Transportation, Kane County and McHenry County in the $70 million project. Huntley is currently doing the engineering for the project and expects consultants will have engineering done by the end of the year.

Village Manager Dave Johnson said he hopes to have the project under construction by March 2012.

Tollway officials seem in sync with that date.

If the hike and the capital projects plan is approve, the tollway could “deliver as soon as 2012,” Zucchero said.

Zucchero presented details on the toll increase and the capital projects it would fund at the public hearing Friday in Huntley. The tollway held a series of hearings across the collar counties to get feedback from the public. Friday’s hearing drew engineers, laborers, construction workers and upset motorists.

A key issue proponents raised was the need for jobs. The road projects, including the reconstruction and widening of Interstate 90, would generate thousands of jobs in Kane and McHenry Counties, speakers said. Jobs that are sorely needed in the area, they said.

McHenry County officials testified that the county needs access to I-90 for economic development.

Currently, McHenry County is the largest county in the area without access to I-90, County Board Chairman Ken Koehler said.

“We’ve wanted to see something develop there for a long time,” Koehler said. “We have the capital and the financial support along with the land. We believe if this is approved, it will create a great economic engine for McHenry County now and when the economy picks up.”

What makes gaining access to I-90 more important is the fact the Chicago Rockford International Airport will have the largest UPS depot in the world, Koehler. The depot will have benefits to villages and cities along I-90 but won’t help McHenry if it doesn’t have the full interchange, he said.

“This is extremely important,” he said. “I apologize but if nothing else gets started, that project has to get started.”

Zucchero said about 800 people had attended hearings as of Friday and many expressed a desire to see interchanges throughout the tollway system be expanded. Many towns have partial interchanges because the system dates back to the 1950s when towns, like Huntley, were so small or rural than access wasn't an issue, he said.

Tollway officials added a hearing in Kane County to get more feedback. The latest hearing will be from 7-9 p.m. today at the Montgomery Village Hall, 200 N. River Road, Montgomery.