$17 million for roads to Lake Co. fairgrounds
Tempering the traffic impact of a shopping center to be built on the Lake County Fairgrounds site will cost more than $17 million.
That's the estimate for 16 projects to add lanes and improve intersections, mainly along Route 45. The improvements were outlined in a recently completed, first-of-its-kind study required by Lake County to extend sewer service to the site.
County officials included a provision in the sewer pact with Grayslake to study an "impact area" well beyond the footprint of the fairgrounds at routes 120 and 45.
Projects identified in the study include widening Route 45, and lengthening turn lanes on Center at Route 83 and Center and Atkinson Road. Route 120 would be widened from Route 45 to Mill Road and from Atkinson Road (extended) to Bobolink Trail.
The area between Route 120 and Center Street, which borders the fairgrounds, will be improved by the developer and was not considered as part of the study.
The costs are associated with traffic expected to be generated by the shopping center, but the timing is to be determined.
Route 45, for example, is on a state list of future projects, but the plan is to rebuild and widen the road, rather than just widen it.
County officials have been working with Grayslake and the Illinois Department of Transportation on details so there isn't a completed project that would be ripped up later.
"Those are the things we are working to coordinate," said Paula Trigg, director of planning and programming for the Lake County division of transportation.
The county board's public works and transportation committee is expected to discuss the study next week.
The idea was to prevent further traffic congestion as the largely open fairgrounds site is developed with an 807,000-square-foot shopping center -- about two-thirds the size of Westfield Hawthorn mall in Vernon Hills.
As outlined in the transportation agreement, the village would provide the county with an irrevocable letter of credit for nearly $21 million. That includes a 20 percent contingency beyond the project cost.
The village would have to deliver the cash as needed as specific road projects proceed, although none are expected to begin this year. Those funds presumably would come from the developer, Developers Diversified Realty of suburban Cleveland.
The company has declined to comment on any aspect of the shopping center, including timing, potential tenants or road improvement costs.
The $60,000 study, paid for by Grayslake, comprised an area approximately bounded by Washington Street on the north, Almond Road to the east, Peterson Road on the south and Route 83 to the west.