Lake Co. wants answers on Milwaukee Ave.
Lake County Forest Preserve officials plan to enlist local legislators to prod the state for details on the pending widening of Milwaukee Avenue north of Route 137 between Libertyville and Gurnee.
Forest district staff will send a letter to Diane O'Keefe, the Illinois Department of Transportation engineer for the Chicago area, saying they are frustrated by a lack of information from the agency as bidding for the long planned project nears. Copies also will be sent to local legislators.
“We're having so much trouble with IDOT it needs to go to our whole Lake County delegation,” said Carol Calabresa, a forest preserve commissioner from Libertyville and member of the planning and restoration committee. “I think it will take the entire delegation working to get their attention.”
Two committees on Monday were asked to give the staff direction on an IDOT request for right-of-way and easements for the project. A third committee will consider it Thursday.
“We look forward to working with local officials on this critical project for Lake County. As the plans for construction continue to take shape, we will take the necessary steps to ensure all interested parties are kept informed in a timely manner,” IDOT spokesman Guy Tridgell said in an e-mail Monday evening.
The project has been on the books since 1994. The agency wants to get bids in June, “yet we don't have many of the things we need to make a decision,” according to Mike Fenelon, head of planning, conservation and development for the forest preserve district.
The Independence Grove Forest Preserve and the district headquarters are on the east side of Milwaukee Avenue. Some of the land will be needed for the project but exactly how much are among the questions the district wants answered.
District officials also don't know how much land will be required for detention areas associated with the project and how they will be designed, for example. The design of an underpass near Casey Road as a major connection between two major trail systems is another unknown.
“We still haven't gotten those documents,” said Tom Hahn, the district's executive director. “I didn't want us to be blamed for holding this (project) up. We've been asking for this for months if not years.”
Hahn said the district also will require IDOT to install a trail between the intersection of Route 137 and Milwaukee east to the main entrance of Independence Grove. The district will ask that the crossing be pedestrian friendly and that a traffic signal be installed at the entrance to Independent Grove.
Business owners, residents and others, who voiced concern on several aspects of the planned project during a public information meeting last September still have unanswered questions, said to Pat Carey, a forest commissioner from Grayslake, whose district is included in the project.
Because it is a state road, IDOT will oversee the project but Lake County is paying more than $31 million so that it can be built.