More traffic lights to be synchronized across Lake County
More traffic lights are set to be linked through Lake County’s traffic management system, officials revealed Wednesday.
Stretches of roads in 15 towns — including Buffalo Grove, Hawthorn Woods, Lake Zurich and Mundelein — will become part of the Lake County PASSAGE program, which uses cameras and other equipment to monitor traffic flow and to adjust red and green lights when needed to get cars moving.
Preliminary engineering work is expected to cost the county more than $1.1 million. Funding for the actual construction is expected to come from the federal government, said Marty Buehler, the county’s transportation director.
Through a nerve center in Libertyville, PASSAGE relays real-time information to motorists via the county’s cable TV station, 1620-AM radio and lakecountypassage.com.
Since the PASSAGE system launched in 2005, the U.S. government has contributed $24 million for the effort, Buehler said. The local bill has been less than $9 million.
“Federal dollars have been huge for making Lake County PASSAGE work,” Buehler told the county board’s public works and transportation committee Wednesday morning in Waukegan.
Added committee member Bonnie Thomson Carter: “Some (federal) earmarks are good.”
The committee said the board should hire two firms to handle the engineering work needed to add the roads to the PASSAGE system.
Christopher B. Burke Engineering, which has offices in Rosemont, will be paid more than $653,000 for handling some of the work, if the county board approves the deal next week.
The second firm, Gewalt Hamilton Associates of Vernon Hills, will be paid more than $506,000 for its share of the engineering work if its contract is approved.
The firms will plan how to interconnect traffic signals along stretches of:
Ÿ Aptakisic Road in Buffalo Grove.
Ÿ Gilmer Road near Hawthorn Woods.
Ÿ Cedar Lake Road in Round Lake Beach.
Ÿ Route 120 in the Grayslake area.
Ÿ Route 83 in Round Lake Beach.
Ÿ Route 12 in the Wauconda area.
Ÿ Route 43 in Waukegan.
Ÿ Route 137 in Waukegan.
Ÿ Sunset Avenue in Waukegan.
Ÿ Glen Flora Avenue in Waukegan.
Ÿ 10th Street in Waukegan.
Ÿ Dugdale Road in Waukegan.
Money for the engineering work will come from a county sales-tax fund that funds transportation and public safety projects.
The system now links 385 traffic signals and 253 cameras located at intersections across Lake County. Each camera can observe more than 1 mile of roadway, Buehler said.
“This is tremendous progress from the original plan,” he said.
None of the committee members opposed the proposals Wednesday.
The full board will vote on the contract at its next meeting, which is Tuesday, April 10, in Waukegan.