I-88 enhancements to boost east-west corridor

By John T. Slania
Contributing Writer

The Illinois Tollway just delivered a holiday gift to area motorists by completing a five-year reconstruction and widening project on a portion of Reagan Memorial Tollway (I-88) that slices through DuPage and Kane counties.

The $800 million road project, completed earlier this month, improves traffic flow and adds lanes on a 23-mile stretch of the tollway from Oak Brook to North Aurora. The project also includes the recent opening of a new interchange at Eola Road where Aurora meets Naperville.

Smoother-flowing traffic along the Reagan Memorial Tollway, and the new Eola Road interchange, are viewed as an ideal combination to spark economic development along the east-west corridor.

DuPage County Board member John Zedicker (right) discusses traffic patterns at the new I-88 Eola Road interchange, with Christine Jeffries of the Naperville Development Partnership and fellow board member James Healy. The $36 million interchange is expected to reduce traffic congestion and be a catalyst for economic development over the next decade. (Photo by Dietrich Wolfframm)

“Improved infrastructure and interchanges are critical, because a better transportation network is always better for economic development,” said Christine Jeffries, president of the Naperville Development Partnership, a public/private economic development organization.

Work began in 2004 on the portion of the Reagan Memorial Tollway from York Road in Oak Brook to Orchard Road in North Aurora, and was characterized by lane closures and reconfigurations, concrete barricades, reduced speeds and traffic delays.

But motorists were rewarded for their patience earlier this month when the work was completed, adding four lanes in each direction between York Road and Route 59, and three lanes in each direction between the Aurora Toll Plaza and Orchard Road.

The construction project also included bridge improvements and the reconfiguration of toll booths to Open Road Tolling for I-Pass users.
The project also resulted in the opening of two new interchanges: Freedom Drive in Naperville in early 2009, and more recently, the Eola Road exit at the Aurora-Naperville border.

“These improvements are important because anytime you reduce traffic congestion and make things more accessible for motorists, you increase the potential for economic development,” said Grant Eckhoff, a member of the DuPage County Board and chairman of the county’s economic development committee.

The newly opened Eola Road interchange is the first Illinois Tollway exit designed solely for I-Pass users. Cash-paying customers are restricted from using the exit and must use nearby toll plazas at the Farnsworth Avenue exit two miles to the west, or the Route 59 exit two miles to the east.

“With more than 80 percent I-Pass usage on the Reagan Memorial Tollway, we felt Eola Road interchange was an ideal location for an all-electronic toll facility. And with two cash plazas within two miles, we felt it wouldn’t be an inconvenience to cash-paying customers,” said Jan Kemp, a spokeswoman for the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority.

The $36 million Eola Road interchange is expected to reduce traffic congestion, as daily traffic volumes along the stretch of toll road between Route 59 in Naperville and Farnsworth Avenue in Aurora have grown from a high of about 8,100 vehicles a day in 1970 to a high of nearly 92,000 vehicles a day in 2008.

The Eola Road interchange also is expected to be a catalyst for economic development. The interchange is expected to create about 10,000 jobs and $579 million in revenue for the City of Aurora over the next decade, according to a study by the Aurora Economic Development Commission. The interchange will enhance accessibility and development of office, retail and hotels, rather than mainly warehouse and distribution space, according to the study.

“Not only will this interchange provide Aurora residents and businesses access to Chicago and the suburbs at a fifth tollway location and help relieve congestion on Route 59, it also will eventually bring tax-generating office and retail development to the area,” according to a statement from Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner, who also serves as a member of the Illinois Tollway board of directors.

Naperville Mayor George Pradel, who also is a tollway director, agrees. “The Eola Road interchange project is a win-win for tollway commuters and residents of Aurora and Naperville,” Pradel said in a written statement.

Area officials expect Eola Road to develop in a similar fashion to Freedom Drive in Naperville when the interchange was opened there. The intersection has developed into a mix of office, retail and restaurant offerings.

“An interchange becomes a magnet for development,” said Jeffries of the Naperville Development Partnership. “What we’ve seen happen at Freedom Drive I would expect to happen at Eola Road.”

Property owners along Eola Road are already anticipating the development benefits of the new interchange.

“In this day and age, it’s all about location and proximity to the interstate. Now this area has three interchanges within three miles of each other, which is going to greatly improve access,” said Brian Kling, vice president of Colliers Bennett and Kahnweiler Inc., a real estate brokerage firm representing the 258-acre Butterfield East industrial park on Eola Road.

It took 10 years for the Eola Road interchange to develop from the planning stage to reality. Area property owners believe they will need the same amount of patience before they will reap the economic benefits.

“Unfortunately, we’re in an economic downturn. But I do think longer term it will be a positive,” said Michael Magliano, associate director of Cushman and Wakefield, a real estate brokerage representing two industrial buildings along Eola Road. “Anytime you own property directly off on an interchange, it is a long-term positive.”

Posted on Tuesday, December 22, 2009 (Archive on Tuesday, December 29, 2009)
Posted by jstoltz Contributed by jstoltz

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