I-80 Coalition to push for highway funding

Study: 3.5% of GDP moves through Will County

By Bob Okon
The Herald News
July 30, 2018

Bob Okon – Shaw Media

A coalition created to push for improvements to Interstate 80 will point to $623 billion of freight coming through Will County a year, making a case the local corridor has national importance.

The freight is 3.5 percent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product, said John Greuling, chief executive officer of the Will County Center for Economic Development.

The numbers generated from a Will County freight study done for the CED will be used in making the case for more federal and state funding to speed up I-80 improvement plans, Greuling told an audience at a Monday luncheon for the Joliet Region Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

“We’re going to lobby for this,” Greuling said. “We’re going to tell them that we have all this freight coming through the county. We have all these trucks. You have to pay us more.”

Payment would come in the form of funding for I-80 improvements to move traffic more efficiently and safely through the county, he said.

“We know that freight volume is a safety issue. It’s a huge safety issue,” Greuling said. “I-80 is probably the poster child for that.”

The I-80 Coalition was announced in late June and is in the process of incorporating itself into a nonprofit group. Members include representatives from government, business and labor.

The focus is a 16-mile corridor of I-80 that runs from U.S. 30 in New Lenox to Ridge Road in Minooka. The Illinois Department of Transportation has long-term plans for improvements along the stretch but total costs are estimated at $1 billion.

Some I-80 projects are already in the works, including reconstruction of the interchange at U.S. 30, Greuling said. Also, funding is in place for deck improvements and wider shoulders on several I-80 bridges. Other potential projects include rebuilding the Chicago Street interchange, replacing the Des Plaines River bridge and adding lanes.

New grass-roots I-80 Coalition seeks to speed up road improvements

Susan DeMar Lafferty
Daily Southtown
June 28, 2019

Earlier this year, IDOT detailed its I-80 Project of proposed improvements to a 16-mile stretch of the interstate from U.S. 30 to Ridge Road, but said it lacked the funding. A new I-80 Coalition will seek funding to accelerate the road work. (Susan DeMar Lafferty / Daily Southtown)

A new grass-roots effort, known as the I-80 Coalition, has been launched by the Will County Center for Economic Development to hasten needed improvements to I-80.

Several government, business, construction and labor officials met for the first time Thursday to lay the groundwork for a strategy to create and fund a public awareness and lobbying campaign to rev up the state’s “I-80 Project.”

Earlier this year, the Illinois Department of Transportation laid out its $1 billion plan to improve interchanges, repair bridges, and add auxiliary lanes on the interstate from Ridge Road in Minooka to U.S. 30 in New Lenox, but without funding, officials said it may take 15 to 20 years to complete.

John Greuling, president and CEO of the Will County Center for Economic Development is spearheading the I-80 Coalition. (Susan DeMar Lafferty / Daily Southtown)

“We don’t have time for that,” John Greuling, CED president and CEO, said.

“If IDOT does not get the money for 15 or 20 years, I wonder if it will ever get money. That’s not acceptable,” he said.

While the idea for this coalition has been talked about for “quite awhile,” it was further fueled by the county’s Community Friendly Freight Mobility Study that showed that 60 percent of the nation’s freight moves through Will County, much of that on this interstate, he said.

It also was prompted by recent discussions of safety issues on I-80 and the controversial NorthPoint Development in Elwood, Greuling said.

Some groups opposing NorthPoint’s 2,000 acre business park called for a moratorium on warehouses and distribution centers until the infrastructure could better handle the increasing volume of trucks.

Rather than stop economic development because of inadequate infrastructure, the coalition wants to accelerate the road work, Greuling said.

While hesitating to put a specific timeframe on the coalition’s efforts, he said he would like to see “a lot of progress by 2025.”

The CED created a similar group years ago to push for the I-355 extension from Bolingbrook to New Lenox, he said. But unlike building a new tollway, I-80 still has to operate as a highway during construction, which makes it more challenging, he said.

The next steps for the new coalition are to formalize as a non-profit organization, create a leadership team, and raise funds for its research and lobbying efforts, Greuling said.

The group will push for funds to improve this oft-congested highway, which may involve the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority, he said.

“There’s a lot of misunderstanding about I-80 Project — we don’t just want to turn it into a tollway, but that will be part of the solution,” Greuling said, noting that both Will County and tollway officials have expressed an interest in tolling at least a segment of the interstate.

Greuling previously lobbied for the now-shelved Illiana toll road project as a bypass to I-80 through southern Will County, from I-55 to I-65 in Indiana, and still sees that as a potential — and quicker— solution to I-80, but it lacks the necessary political will, he said.

New coalition wants to speed up I-80 work

I-80 Coalition brings together local government, business and labor

By Bob Okon
The Herald News
June 27, 2018

Eric Ginnard – eginnard@shawmedia.com

A new I-80 Coalition is being formed to speed up long-term plans to improve the interstate.

The group held its first meeting Wednesday with more than 50 representatives from government, business and labor, said John Greuling, CEO of the Will County Center for Economic Development.

Greuling said a similar coalition was formed to promote the construction of Interstate 355 in Will County, and the same kind of effort will be made to move Interstate 80 plans ahead of the tentative 15- to 20-year schedule that the Illinois Department of Transportation now has for the project.

“We’re really going to be a cheerleader and a lobbying group to get the project done a lot quicker than IDOT thinks they can get it done,” Greuling said.

That likely will include exploring alternative sources for funding improvements, he said.

IDOT has a plan costing at least $1 billion plan for I-80 improvements along a 16-mile stretch from New Lenox to Minooka. It includes major projects such as the replacement of the Des Plaines River bridge in Joliet, reconstruction of the Chicago Street interchange and additional lanes to improve traffic flow.

Funding is not available for the entire plan, however.

The state’s five-year plan only includes funding for replacing smaller bridges at Rowell Avenue, Richards Street, Gardner Street and Hickory Creek, along with rehabilitation of the Chicago Street bridge.

But Illinois also has committed $21 million to build a new Houbolt Road interchange in Joliet once CenterPoint Properties moves ahead with construction of a bridge over the Des Plaines River.

The state this month also announced it would use federal funding to rebuild the Route 30 interchange in New Lenox.

Charles Gallagher, president of Gallagher Asphalt and a member of the I-80 Coalition, said more is needed to “bring I-80 into the 21st century.”

“I think that areas of I-80 have been neglected for a long time,” Gallagher said. “Unfortunately in Illinois, there are too few dollars chasing too many needs. If we’re not there, we’re not going to get anything done.”

James Roolf, president of First Midwest Bank’s Joliet Banking Center and a member of the group that pushed for construction of I-355, said there was a lot of enthusiasm at the I-80 Coalition meeting.

“I think there’s a lot of interest in working through this,” Roolf said. “This is a much larger group than the [I-355] group was.”

The first goal of the coalition, Greuling said, will be to establish itself as a nonprofit so it can begin raising funds for education and lobbying efforts.

“One of the things we want to do is make sure the discussion on I-80 is factual and accurate,” he said. 

Tollway willing to step in to fund I-80 upgrades, chairman tells Joliet City Council

By BOB OKON
Herald News
Oct. 15, 2018

Eric Ginnard – eginnard@shawmedia.com

The chairman of the state tollway board laid out a case to the Joliet City Council on Monday for turning the local stretch of Interstate 80 into a toll road.

“We at the tollway are ready to help,” Chairman Bob Schillerstrom told the council.

Schillerstrom was asked to make a presentation on the Illinois Tollway’s capacity to fund I-80 improvements.

He said turning the local stretch of road could speed up the pace of a $1 billion plan that the Illinois Department of Transportation now has for I-80 from New Lenox to Minooka.

“IDOT has said they may not have funds to work on 80 for 20 years,” Schillerstrom said. “The tollway’s here to help. We look to partner. We look to work with others.”

Mayor Bob O’Dekirk said he invited Schillerstrom to the council meeting after hearing him make a similar presentation to a new I-80 Coalition of government and business leaders that was created to push for progress on the planned improvements.

O’Dekirk said he gets “a real mixed reaction” when he speaks to Joliet gatherings about the possibility of turning the local section of I-80 into a tollway.

Read the full article.