Kane Co. may OK new Fox River bridge, and $1.50 toll
Plans to fund a new bridge over the Fox River with the second highest toll rate in the Chicago area received a reception Tuesday suggesting the Kane County Board will approve the $117 million Longmeadow Parkway project with few doubts or questions.
The full county board saw the final recommendations for the bridge for the first time Tuesday. Longmeadow Parkway would stretch 5.6 miles from Huntley Road east to Route 62. It would be the first bridge constructed in the northern part of the county in 50 years and provide another path over the Fox River to alleviate traffic congestion for residents on the rapidly growing west side of the river.
Four members of the county board sat on the task force that developed the recommendations. Those recommendations call for a toll on the bridge of $1.50 for regular cars during the morning and evening rush hours. The toll would drop to $1 during periods of lower demand.
The $1.50 rate surpasses the rate of $1 at the Spring Creek toll plaza on the Veterans Memorial Tollway (I-355), and falls only below the $3 toll to use the Chicago Skyway. Despite that, expert projections predict 9,000 cars will use the new bridge every day.
"We need this bridge," Algonquin Village President John Schmitt said. "We need it desperately - we need to keep the jobs in the area. And the only way to get the jobs is to build the buildings and build the businesses. And the only way to do that is to provide the highway infrastructure so that they can be profitable.
"A lot of the cost that is in this will be recovered from the development that is going to come. We need this road. We needed it five years ago. You need to build it; we'll pay the tolls."
The county's transportation staff said there simply is no federal money to be had of a scale large enough to fund the bridge without tolls. County board member John Fahy, who sat on the task force, backed that up. He said he wrote to U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood asking for money for the project.
LaHood sent back a book called "Paying Our Way" that supports the use of tolls for all major roadway construction projects in the future throughout the nation.
The transportation staff said if any federal dollars are found for the project, the county board can consider lowering the toll rate. That also can be done once the $117 million that must be borrowed for the construction is paid back.
The county board is set to vote on the project, the toll rate and the creation of a new toll bridge commission to oversee the entire operation at its July meeting.
West Dundee Village President Larry Keller said he has no doubt people will use the bridge and pay the toll.
"People say now that they don't want to pay the toll," Keller said. "When you're sitting in traffic, you change your mind."
Bridge: Toll will be second-highest in Chicago area