Route 20 no longer a bypass in Elgin?
U.S. Route 20 is the longest road in the United States, stretching more than 3,300 miles from Boston to Astoria, Ore. The road passes through big cities and small towns from coast to coast, including Elgin, where city councilmen will soon discuss its local future.
The council will decide Wednesday whether to fund a study looking at the feasibility of transforming a 5-mile stretch of the famous road from an expressway to an “urban highway.”
Route 20, a federal thoroughfare, is under the jurisdiction of the Illinois Department of Transportation, but Elgin may fund the $97,715 study on its own.
“It’s not our project or our road, but it obviously has some impact on us,” City Manager Sean Stegall said.
The Chicago-based Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) recommended the change in a report about Elgin released in March 2010.
President and CEO of the CNU, John Norquist, said the current bypass design lowers property values surrounding the expressway and limits the city’s potential.
“Does Elgin want to be a great place to drive a truck or does it want to be a great city?” Norquist questioned.
The new design would change it from a bypass and add intersections to the stretch of Route 20 between Randall Road and Shales Parkway. The change would make the road more accessible to pedestrians, cyclists and motorists trying to cross from one side of the road to the other but would also slow down traffic at the intersections.
Elgin officials presented the Congress for the New Urbanism’s recommendation to IDOT but were met with skepticism and a request for more data.
“This is a little outside of IDOT’s general comfort zone,” said Elgin Mayor Ed Schock, who supports the proposal.
For the proposed study, Elgin-based firm Hampton, Lenzini and Renwick Inc. would spend about 28 weeks collecting information using land use and transportation planning documents, existing roadway design plans, traffic counts and crash data to present to IDOT.
Stegall argues an urban highway would better disperse traffic and likely cost less than maintaining the current bypass.
But Dave Kaptain, councilman and mayoral candidate, argues against it because of maintenance already underway. IDOT has invested time and money on the design and land acquisition for a project on the Route 20 interchange at McLean Boulevard.
Kaptain said IDOT told him and other Elgin representatives at a meeting about the CNU report that if the city wanted to scrap the project, the $54 million allocated to it would go back to the general fund.
Kaptain said Elgin may never see that money again.
“I think it would not be wise to lose state money on that interchange right now,” Kaptain said.
If the council votes to fund the study and the project ultimately proves feasible, Elgin will try to persuade IDOT to pay for an urban highway in place of the bypass, forging a new future for the United States’ longest road.