Butterfield project nearly done after 10 years
Some of the elementary school students whose bus routes included Butterfield Road at the start of a $36 million construction project nearly a decade ago can now drive themselves -- if they're home from college.
The years of brake-grinding, axle-banging headaches for the 16,000 motorists who use the road each day should end Saturday, when the new lanes from Route 137 to Ridgewood Lane in Libertyville are set to open.
When the final layer of pavement is laid, landscaping planted, and other odds and ends completed next spring, 10 years will have passed since work began to widen the key north-south route from end to end.
Granted, it was not a continuous pain. The road was worked on in sections and several construction seasons were idle -- no rows of barricades, beeping heavy equipment or piles of pipes stacked along the roadside. Still, travelers must have wondered if the end would ever come.
"This is our first (county) highway that's completed from one end to another," said Marty Buehler, director of transportation.
Butterfield runs 5.6 miles from Route 45 in Vernon Hills, north through Mundelein to Route 137 in Libertyville. The average county road is four miles long, according to Buehler.
Two-lane roads are considered congested when the traffic reaches 15,000 vehicles a day. Butterfield long ago was identified as a candidate for widening to five lanes, which includes two lanes in each direction and a separate center turn lane. Traffic is expected to eventually increase to 25,000 vehicles a day.
As with most projects, Butterfield was done in separate segments determined in part by how much money was available.
"It's one corridor, but they're definitely separate projects," Buehler said.
Costs were shared by the county, state, federal and municipal governments as well as the Illinois Commerce Commission, Metra and developers. At $36 million that amounts to more than $6.4 million per mile.
In a sense, that could be considered a bargain as the cost of oil, concrete and steel have risen steadily.
"The cost increases have been extraordinary the past three years. It's probably $8 million a mile now for a five-lane highway," Buehler said.
One distinct feature of the project is more than a mile of raised landscaped median, faced with manufactured stone, installed to stop cut-through traffic on side streets. The respective villages are responsible for water and maintenance.
Officials said the completed road will increase convenience for travelers.
"People will soon forget what it used to be and ask what's next?" Buehler said.
But one aspect does not sit well with Libertyville officials, who lobbied for a traffic signal to serve the Butterfield Square shopping center to the east and Ashley Capital industrial/office property to the west.
Access to each side has been altered, making it more difficult to get in and out of both locations. The Daily Herald's Libertyville office is on the office property.
Libertyville Mayor Jeff Harger said the village is "very upset and disappointed," with the "blatant disregard for businesses" near the intersection.
"By altering the area of Butterfield near the entrances to Sunset Foods and Ashley Capital properties, they have essentially killed any opportunity for future economic growth of either of these properties," Harger said.
The county maintains that a signal at that location would be too close to Route 137, where dual northbound left-turn lanes were added. Vehicles would stack up in the intersection, the county said.