Technical Advisory Group Meeting #6 - October 5, 2000
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The sixth Technical Advisory Group meeting was held at the Mundelein Holiday Inn on October 5, 2000 and focused on the following topics:
Peter Harmet/LCTIP welcomed representatives to the meeting and provided an overview of the meeting agenda. Peter began the meeting with a discussion of the finalist transit upgrades under consideration by the LCTIP. The finalist rail improvements include commuter rail service on the EJ&E from Waukegan to Spaulding (just south of Prairie Stone), additional parking at Metra stations, consolidation of freight service on the Union Pacific freight line, and signal improvements and turnback facilities (near Green Oaks) on the Milwaukee District North Line to enhance commuter service on this line. These are in addition to adding a second track along the North Central Service rail line which is included in our Baseline improvements. Also, five bus routes have been identified to improve service between home and work locations and to enhance connections between bus-to-bus and bus-to-rail trips. These transit enhancements will be common to the finalist roadway alternatives. Next Peter explained that following the public meetings in May 2000, the LCTIP refined the finalist roadway alternatives to further avoid or minimize impacts, improve performance, reflect alternative specific population and employment distributions, and reassess impacts based on enhanced field studies. He presented a graphic illustration of the two finalist roadway alternatives highlighting the changes that resulted from this refinement process. Peter then discussed the process used to develop the alternative specific population distributions which is based on a methodology endorsed by NIPC, improved access (a key factor is distributing population), and inclusion of both the finalist highway and transit improvements. Peter recapped the population forecasts, which were presented at previous meetings. By the year 2020, Lake County’s population is forecast to grow by 250,000 (from 1990 levels) regardless of major transportation improvements. The LCTIP Baseline roadway improvements would add another 10,000 people. Transit enhancements would add another 23,000. He then discussed how population would change with the implementation of the IL 53 extension alternative or the IL 83/US 45 (with US 12) alternative. The information illustrated that substantial growth is coming to the area regardless of transportation improvements and that the highest growth rates are in the north and west. The population impact of either alternative would be less than 4% of Lake County’s 2020 population and this growth would generally concentrate in the central and eastern portions of the county. Next was a discussion of the reassessed environmental and societal impacts based on the refined finalist roadway alternatives. Peter presented a summary of the potential park, forest preserve, wetland, and home and business impacts. For parks and forest preserves, the impact is 17 acres for the IL 83/US 45 (with US 12) alternative and 20 acres for the IL 53 extension alternative. This is out of 35,000 acres of parks and forest preserves in Lake County. For wetlands, the acres of impact are 96 and 59 for the IL 53 extension and IL 83/US 45 respectively. This is out of 30,000 acres of wetlands in Lake County. For home and business buildings, the impact is a little over 150 displacements for the IL 53 extension and over 250 displacements for IL 83/US 45. Taking a closer look at the number of dwellings and/or business unit impacts the IL 53 extension is approaching 200 units and IL 83/US 45 has over 600 units displaced. For parking spaces, the IL 53 extension would displace about 100 spaces and IL 83/US 45 would displace 2,850 spaces. Peter continued with a discussion of the transportation performance for the finalist alternatives. He provided the results for several measures including uncongested travel, travel times for select trips, annual travel time savings, and travel congestion on county roads. Peter noted that uncongested travel in the year 2020 would be slightly different for the finalists alternatives – the IL 53 extension alternative would have 600 uncongested lane miles (level of service A, B, or C) of travel in the north-south direction compared to 570 lane miles for the IL 83/US 45 alternative. He pointed out that the finalist alternatives would provide notable travel time savings for select north-south and east-west trips. The IL 53 extension provides better time savings for north-south trips in western/central Lake County and across the middle of Lake County in the IL 120 corridor. IL 83/ US 45 provided better time savings for north-south trips in eastern Lake County. Annual travel time saved for the finalist alternatives was also measured against the Baseline Improvements in the year 2020. Both alternatives showed substantial travel time savings over the Baseline Improvements with an annual savings of about 19 million hours each. This translated to an annual travel time savings of about 33 hours for each licensed driver in Lake County. Lastly, Peter described the effect of the finalist alternatives upon county routes. He explained that an analysis was performed to determine how the different alternatives would affect the need for add-lane improvements on county routes based on future traffic volumes using the Lake County Division of Transportation’s criteria. He noted that in the year 2020, the IL 53 extension would require 17 fewer lane miles of improvement than under the Baseline Condition, and that IL 84/US 45 would require 13 more lane miles of roadway improvement than under the Baseline Condition. Peter continued the presentation with a discussion of safety for the finalist alternatives. He explained that a rigorous analysis was conducted to compare the future crash experience for the finalist alternatives. The approach considered past crash trends, crash experience on different facility types, and the frequency of access points along various road types. The results of the comparison showed that the IL 53 extension would provide a reduction in crashes of 7 percent compared to the Baseline Condition in the year 2020, whereas IL 83/US 45 would provide a reduction of 1 percent. He concluded by stating that the analysis is intended as a relative comparison, rather than an absolute prediction. Peter introduced Transportation System Management (TSM) strategies as a companion element of the transportation improvements for Lake County. He explained that these strategies could include signals, synchronized signals, turning lanes, improved intersections, message signs, etc. He noted that their effectiveness is based on traffic conditions, intersection spacing, roadside access, or railroad crossings. He showed several graphics that illustrated numerous TSM improvements that have been made in the county between 1990 and 2000, and those TSM improvements that are planned in the future. He noted that even with these numerous improvements traffic congestion continues to worsen. Peter commented that TSM improvements would be used to compliment the major physical improvements proposed for Lake County. However, TSM improvements are not sufficient by themselves to address the needs of rapidly growing traffic volumes for the long term. Peter concluded his presentation with a few comments about the next steps. He mentioned that we are in the final stages of the study, and that a preliminary Draft Environmental Impact Statement is being prepared. He noted that the Draft Environmental Impact Statement would be available for public circulation in the spring of 2001, and that a public hearing would be held during the same time frame. Lastly, he mentioned that the decision to select an alternative resides with the leadership of IDOT and ISTHA and the Governor. Following the formal presentation, Mr. Harmet opened the floor to questions from the attendees. The questions are enumerated below.
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