There are better, cheaper solutions on Route 120

I’m not sure that many of your readers know about a project being designed by the Illinois Department of Transportation for improving traffic flow on Illinois Route 120 in northern Illinois (the Grayslake area especially). It’s a really big project as now conceived, big as in $2 billion.

I learned about this project only recently and was stunned by its projected cost, not to mention the tremendous impact on the local environment. I’ve also learned that the needed traffic improvements could well be achieved with less-costly alternatives, such as the strategic adding of turn lanes, synchronized traffic lights and some carefully planned over- and underpasses at selected railroad crossings.

IDOT claims that the project’s overwhelming dimensions are data-driven. I’d like to see that data. I also thought that state monies were previously allocated for these improvements, but have not yet been acted upon.

I know from experience that numbers can be used to prove anything. The project’s proposers have failed to convince local officials that this colossal waste of tax money is the best answer to the current Route 120 issues. Those local officials and their constituents are well aware that IDOT’s Route 120 Bypass concept would negatively impact their quality of life and the local environment, and raise havoc with the state’s financial status.

In that sense, the “grand” vision of IDOT fails to pass muster and deserves to be recast into real improvements at more modest costs.

Larry Friedrichs, Anna Pieta; Executive Directors/Founding Members

Friends of Indian Creek Wetlands