Gurnee trustee now OK with tollway barrier plan

Gurnee Trustee David Ohanian's concerns about a tollway barrier not being tall enough to block noise from a north side neighborhood have been alleviated.

Ohanian said Monday he recently received Illinois State Toll Highway Authority documents showing details of the noise-abatement wall along the Westgate subdivision that indicate the barrier height is consistent with other areas along the Tri-State Tollway.

Last month, he spoke out at a public meeting because he said he was skeptical about a tollway plan for what appeared to be a 13-foot wall near Westgate, which is east of the tollway and south of Stearns School Road. Ohanian lives in the subdivision, which has a blend of about 375 single-family homes and townhouses.

At the meeting, Ohanian said he observed tollway walls protecting other suburbs south of Gurnee that were at least 20 feet or taller.

He said Monday the plans he received indicate the barrier should be in the vicinity of 20 feet tall after it's placed on top of an upward-sloping berm.

Because the tollway already existed, Ohanian said, noise wasn't an issue for him when he moved into Westgate in 1985. He said he realized it came with the territory.

Ohanian said his concern about the barrier height never was about him looking to protect his Westgate neighborhood from noise.

"I was more concerned with being treated fairly," he said.

Tollway officials said a noise analysis and terrain are part of the decision-making process on whether a sound wall should be built. Toll road standards call for roughly an 8-decibel noise reduction for a barrier to be found useful to a residential neighborhood.

Sound walls can be constructed for areas where homes are within 500 feet of the tollway, but not for industrial or commercial businesses.

Work on the Tri-State running through Gurnee is part of an overall $1.3 billion project to widen the tollway to four lanes in each direction from O'Hare International Airport to the Wisconsin state line. Gurnee's sound barrier will be installed at the end of the project, officials said.