Many municipal leaders, though, insist development interest is strengthening and say it's only a matter of time before the economy comes back and their vision for the area is realized.
Expected growth Will County's population exploded from , in to , in , census data show. At one point, it was among the fastest-growing counties in the nation, with projections for more than a million people by , according to the Northern Illinois Planning Commission.
As Chicago-area residents took advantage of cheaper homes, businesses followed, capitalizing on the available space and commercial-friendly tax rates. Silver Cross Hospital officials decided to build a replacement hospital for its crowded Joliet campus at the end of the new expressway in New Lenox.
Residential and retail developments were in full swing, and the county, along with Homer Glen, New Lenox, Lockport and Lemont, were ready for sales and property tax revenue to roll in. Today, they're still waiting. Will County's population is roughly the same as it was six years ago. After four years of construction, the new hospital opened in February, anchoring the south end of the tollway.
Jim Roolf, chairman of the hospital's board and a former member of the tollway's board of directors, said had the hospital board known how bad the recession was going to be, it's possible the hospital project wouldn't have happened. As for the extension itself, congestion is extremely rare even as traffic has increased each year from about 69, vehicles per day in to more than 80, per day in , tollway officials said. Taxpayers on the hook Along with the hospital, developers of major shopping centers and medical offices were interested in building in New Lenox where I meets Illinois Highway 6 near I Even though the tax revenue has yet to roll in, some towns are still on the hook for millions because of the new tollway.
The first sign for the previous south end of Interstate appeared at the diamond interchange with 75th Street. The penultimate exit is Boughton Road. I south at the diamond interchange with Boughton Road at Bolingbrook. These were posted above the cash lanes departing from the adjacent main line toll plaza. The North-South Tollway concluded with four lanes prior to These button copy signs were eventually replaced with a diagrammatic overhead showing the third southbound lane.
I concluded as traffic partitioned for Interstate 55 northeast to Downtown Chicago and southwest to Joliet, Springfield and St. A button copy end sign was posted on the transition ramp to I north. Bridge supports were prebuilt for the eventual southern extension to New Lenox.
This set of button copy signs was posted at the diamond interchange Exit for IL The overhead for I was removed by IL 53 parallels I northward to Interstate This one mile overhead for Interstate was replaced by to reference just Tollway as the southern extension opened. Photo by Eric W. A distributor roadway replaced this set of lanes when the Veterans Memorial Tollway was extended south. A loop ramp departed for Interstate North South Tollway as I continued another 14 miles to the Chicago city limits.
North End. South End. Route Information. North End — Itasca, IL. Mileage — Junctions —. I under construction — Illinois Official Highway Map. Tollway Extension The Brad Smetanko shed some light on the proposed southerly extension of Interstate in an email dated November 28, [According to the Will County] Transportation Plan , the county seems to feel that its residents are ardent supporters of the [recent extension of Interstate south to Interstate 80]. I-PASS users a guaranteed a rate freeze for 10 years.
Construction of Interstate was expected to began around Thanksgiving , and was completed in November To limit the number of piers in the valley, the tollway authority built the bridge with both feet 52 m pre-stressed bulb tee girders and feet 82 m post-tensioned segmental concrete girders. A design-build clause in the original contract for the bridge, in addition to success in the design-build contracts on the — Tri-State Tollway widening and reconstruction, allowed project managers to redesign and build the new bridge.
The tollway authority held a ribbon cutting and dedication ceremony on Veterans Day November 11 , , officially renaming the entire length of I the Veterans Memorial Tollway.
Ceremonies were held on the tollway near the th Street interchange in Lemont, at th Street in Homer Glen, and at U. Route 6 in New Lenox. After noting the success of the festival, a tollway spokesman announced plans to repeat the event annually, including the closure of the entire southern extension. He later clarified the tollway's position, indicating that while the extension would probably not be closed in its entirety in the future, a possible 5 kilometres 3 mi ride across the Des Plaines River Valley Bridge may be held.
At around pm on November 11, a group of Illinois State Police vehicles and tollway maintenance vehicles escorted the first motorists southbound along the I extension, stopping at each interchange to remove barricades. By the time the maintenance crews began to remove barricades along the northbound lanes of the extension, a group of 50 to 60 vehicles had gathered behind the crews. Read more about this topic: Interstate , History.
It is hard to have a southern overseer; it is worse to have a northern one; but worst of all when you are the slave-driver of yourself.
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