Plans for Stearns Road bridge back to four-lane model

The Stearns Road regional bridge likely will have four lanes over the Fox River but the scope of ancillary projects related to the actual bridge construction must be reduced, members of the Kane County Board's transportation committee learned Monday.

Nearly two years ago committee members reluctantly agreed to move forward with plans to build a scaled-down bridge corridor, reduced to two and sometimes three lanes across much of its 4.6-mile length from the Kane/DuPage County line to Randall Road.

But Tom Rickert, deputy director of programming for the Kane County Division of Transportation, told the committee Monday a four-lane bridge can be built if other facets of the project are tweaked.

That includes widening and resurfacing Route 25 instead of totally reconstructing the Y-shaped Route 25-Stearns-Dunham Road intersection in St. Charles Township, the eastern side of the bridge approach. West of the Fox River, no additional through lanes would be built at the intersection of Route 31 and McLean Boulevard. Reconstruction of the Route 25 bridge over Brewster Creek also would be delayed, Rickert said.

The changes are needed to accommodate an estimated $70 million shortfall in funding for the long-awaited project, Rickert said.

"If Santa Claus comes and gives you a whole bag of money then you can widen this road," said committee member Mike Kenyon, a South Elgin Republican. "People have to understand that we're working within our means."

The shortfall stems in part from a smaller than anticipated pool of state and federal funds. The $150 million project was anticipated to be funded by a mix of 80 percent federal, 10 percent state and 10 percent county funds.

Committee member John Hoscheit, the St. Charles Republican who represents part of the area where the bridge will be built, expressed frustration that little has happened since officials broke ground a year ago in St. Charles Township. The bridge is scheduled to open to traffic in October 2010.

"All we've done so far is moved a pile of dirt on Route 25," Hoscheit said. "It's taken forever; the cost has doubled."

Committee member Don Wolfe once again suggested installing a toll booth on the bridge to secure additional funding, but no other committee members seemed to be on board.

"Building something less than what we need is just a road to disaster," said Wolfe, an Elgin Republican.