Developing plans by the Elgin O’Hare West Bypass Group involve much more than just a western access route to the airport.

The group of local and state officials, as well as consultants, are attempting to improve traffic on various expressways as well as major arterial roads to keep the economic lifeblood flowing in what is a major suburban hub of jobs.

Arteries are being clogged at a rate of 284,270 total daily hours of delay on 390 miles of area roads in 25 communities, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT).

Other than expanding existing roads or building new ones, techniques include increasing public transportation and encouraging a system of variable work schedules for area companies. Potentially there is a very big demand for varying work times, according to consultant Michael Matkovic of Christopher Burke Engineering in Rosemont.

But speakers at the latest in a continuing series of meetings stated that choices must be made about which problems to solve since there is not enough money to improve every situation.

“There are a plethora of solutions, but we will not be able to solve all the problems. No one thing can make all the problems go away,” said Lidia Pilecky, a vice president in the Transportation Business Group of CH2MHill of Chicago.

At the end of the day, she said it becomes a balancing act of selecting some of the various transportation options to get the most bang for a buck. “Just as important as what options should be selected are what options should not be selected.”

One general goal is to move away the ratio of 95 percent auto trips and 5 percent public transportation. But Pilecky said “We want to be different than those figures, but how far we go we do not know at this point.”

Matkovic cited an example that every possible solution was being considered. He said the group should seriously start looking at private ownership of roads. One aspect of that general concept is constructing truck only lanes and considering how much trucking companies should pay for the lanes as part of a cost sharing formula.

He also mentioned different pricing strategies for various times of the day on area toll ways. But that technique should not be applied to just one area, according to John Lopez, the principal transportation planner for the DuPage County Economic Development and Planning Department

Many transportation improvement methods were mentioned at two February meetings to deal with massive transportation congestion on 390 miles of roads in what the group is calling the study area.

The corridor includes an area roughly bounded by I-90, I-290 and I-294 west of O’Hare. That area includes 25 communities, two counties and about 100 square miles of land, according to Peter E. Harmet, bureau chief of programming for IDOT. “Regardless of what alternatives are selected, they must minimize the impact on the environment of local communities.”

He said there will be a lot of “heavy lifting” in 2008 and into 2009 about which alternatives to use to solve traffic problems. Harmet said his agency and the consultants would attempt to get a consensus among local officials in the group, but IDOT would make the final decisions.

Included in what the group is calling a “transportation toolbox” are other techniques such as:

• Widen existing freeways or toll ways;
• Construct new access-controlled roadway;
• Improve existing arterials;
• Construct new arterial;
• Reconstruct/improve interchanges;
• Major intersection improvements;
• Construct grade separations at railroad crossings;
• Construct new transit stations;
• Improve existing transit stations;
• Construct park and ride lots;
• Improve railroad station access;
• Expand bus service areas;
• Construct new rail transit corridor;
• Improve freight movement within railroad yards;
• Complete linkages in existing bicycle/pedestrian systems;
• Exclusive bicycle/pedestrian trails;
• “High priority” corridors for shared used between pedestrians and vehicles;
• Expressway ramp metering with red lights and green lights to control vehicle access:
• Changeable/reversible lanes;
• Express trains;
• Bus rapid transit lanes on existing roadways;
• Van/shuttle/bus services to employment centers.

Many of these techniques will be needed to solve the traffic congestion of which everyone is aware. But people are wondering how bad the numbers are.

Figures released by (IDOT) at the February meetings were startling:

• 98 per cent of free way/toll ways are congested.
• 93 per cent of major arterials are congested.
• Congestion results in 52,440 daily hours of delay in the PM peak period.
• Total daily hours of delay are 284,270.
• Over 103 million hours of delays annually
• Or 13 million work days annually

A graphic with this story breaks down total area roadways into moderate congestion, severe congestion and extreme congestion.

Top ranked issues in the congestion problem, according to an earlier stakeholder workshop were:

• Need for expanded public transportation. Public transit is not currently a realistic mode choice. Enhanced service options and improved infrastructure is required;
• Need for a lasting solution that minimizes community impact and maximizes economic development potential;
• Poor connectivity from I-290 to I-294 (including North Ave.);
• Lack of access to O’Hare;
• Travel delays along at-grade railroad crossings (e.g. Irving Park Road and York Road);
• Western access to O’Hare needs to be “economic access”, not just access to remote parking lots;
• Lack of convenience access to the airport from DuPage County and northwest Cook County;
• Strategic access to residential, office and industrial centers;
• Need for increased emphasis on travel management strategies and public awareness;
• Overall congestion on all major routes;
• Bike/walk to public transit.