Hainesville mayor says tolls shouldn't be in Route 120's future

Hainesville Mayor Linda Soto was the lone mayor on the Route 120 Corridor Planning Council last month to vote against what was called a "unified vision" for the often-congested east-west thoroughfare.

Lake County Division of Transportation representatives are to make a presentation about the Route 120 improvement plans at a Hainesville village board meeting Tuesday.

Under the plan, Route 120 would become a four-lane arterial highway with limited access between Fish Lake Road in Volo on the west and Almond Road in Warren Township to the east.

Part of the plan for what is being called the Central Lake Thruway, includes a nine-mile bypass segment around the existing Route 120 in the Hainesville-Grayslake area. Local and regional traffic would be separate with the bypass.

Soto said she intends to ask trustees Tuesday night to pass a resolution supporting the preservation of property needed for the Route 120 bypass corridor in the village, as long as no toll for drivers is pursued.

It's unlikely motorists would pay to use a local highway with traffic signals and possibly roundabouts, Soto said.

"I have a real problem with the idea of a toll being charged (for) less than an expressway," she said Friday.

Local leaders at a 2005 transportation summit pegged improvements to Route 120 as a top priority. The most recent cost estimates are $461 million including construction, land acquisition, engineering and environmental mitigation.

Route 120 Corridor Council officials say an immediate goal is to get state funding for the proposed project.

The use of electronic transponders in vehicles to collect fees was determined to be feasible for the bypass section. Drivers without transponders would use the existing Route 120, according to the unified vision document.

Besides an environmental impact assessment, the state's first-phase study would involve a more detailed financial analysis of how to pay for the road. That would include an estimate of how many vehicles would use the existing route if a fee were imposed on the new road.

State legislation would be required to allow the county to collect fees in that manner.

"No decisions have been made, no recommendations have been made," said Marty Buehler, chief of the Lake County Division of Transportation.

Each local entity involved in the 120 corridor study will be voting on a resolution endorsing the unified vision document.

"This is a big step," Buehler said. "It just adds a little more weight to the consensus."

Now that the local work has been done, county officials are lobbying the Illinois Department of Transportation to take the next step regarding a new Route 120.

The cost of the state's Phase 1 study is about $25 million and would take about two years to complete. Once completed and accepted, the project would move to the design phase.