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Archive for the ‘Longmeadow Parkway’ Category

No toll to be charged for using Longmeadow bridge over Fox River after state pays remaining $12.5M cost

Posted in Algonquin Rd, County, FUBAR, Horizon Farm, Kane, Longmeadow Parkway, Politics, Traffic on June 2, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Thanks to $12.5 million in funding secured by local state legislators, people using the Longmeadow Parkway bridge over the Fox River will not need to pay a toll when it opens next year.

“I made a promise to the people of my district that this brid

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Thanks to $17.5 million in funding secured by local state legislators, people using the Longmeadow Parkway bridge over the Fox River will not need to pay a toll when it opens next year. (Gloria Casas / The Courier-News)

e would not become a toll bridge,” said state Rep. Suzanne Ness, D-Crystal Lake, whose District 66 includes parts of Algonquin, Carpentersville and Elgin.

“We’ve needed another way of passage across the Fox River, and it would be wrong to ask working families to pay more than they already do just to go to work, get groceries or take kids to a sports field,” she said.

The $100 million Longmeadow Parkway Corridor is a 5.6-mile roadway that runs through portions of unincorporated Kane County, Algonquin, Carpentersville and Barrington Hills. Funded with a mix of federal, state and local money, it is designed to relieve traffic congestion in northern Kane County.

The Kane County Board authorized the sale of bonds to cover its share of the bridge expense and planned to collect tolls from bridge users in order to repay the debt. The toll cost was expected to be about $1.75 to $1.95.

The additional funding needed for the bridge was included in the state’s newly passed 2023-24 budget. In addition to Ness, state Reps. Anna Moeller, D-Elgin, and Don DeWitte, R-St. Charles, advocated for it in the last legislative session.

More here.

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Longmeadow Parkway corridor soil removal work starts

Posted in County, Kane, Longmeadow Parkway, Taxes on May 18, 2023| Leave a Comment »

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Removal of lead contaminated soil that’s held up the completion of the Longmeadow Parkway Bridge Corridor is finally underway.

According to a Kane County Department of Transportation news release, the project started last week and will take 12 months to complete (follow the money), weather and work production schedules permitting.

Work hours will be 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and daily temporary lane closures will be required. Flaggers or cones may be needed to control traffic as construction vehicles enter and leave the work zone, the release said.

For more information, go to:

kdot.countyofkane.org/Pages/Projects/Longmeadow-Parkway-Bridge/Longmeadow-Pkwy.aspx.

Source

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Daily Herald opinion: A toll-free Longmeadow Bridge would also be good for Cook, McHenry counties

Posted in Algonquin Rd, Cook, County, FUBAR, IDOT, Kane, Longmeadow Parkway, McHenry, Politics, Taxes on May 11, 2023| Leave a Comment »

LMP To Nowhere

Kane County officials are hoping their counterparts in Cook and McHenry counties will contribute toward the cost of the Longmeadow Parkway project and help avert charging tolls at the bridge over the Fox River. Daily Herald File Photo

Funding issues have dogged the Longmeadow Parkway traffic project in northeast Kane County virtually since its inception with a $4 million federal grant in 2005. As the $135 million roadway lumbers toward a late 2024 completion, one lingering, important question remains — how to pay off $35 million in bonds Kane County used to help with the construction and support ongoing maintenance.

The ultimate fallback has long been assumed to be to make the Longmeadow Parkway Bridge, the final leg of the project, a toll bridge, the only such local toll bridge in the state. Almost no one likes that option, though, and Kane County officials have said it might be averted altogether if McHenry and Cook counties, portions of which are served by the 5.6-mile roadway, will pitch in $1 million each in recognition of the fact that their constituents will benefit substantially from the traffic-relief valve running from Huntley and Boyer roads eastward to Route 62 in Algonquin.

McHenry County Board Chair Mike Buehler acknowledged the benefits in an interview with Shaw Local Media last week. While coming well short of agreeing to Kane County’s request, Buehler did note that some estimates have found motorists from McHenry County would pay $1 million a year if the bridge ends up charging a toll.

“If we’re looking at a scenario where a toll would be eliminated, I think that would be a pretty compelling argument,” Buehler said.

The argument may not be quite as persuasive in Cook County, where just a small sliver near Barrington Hills would be most affected, but then again $1 million out of Cook’s multibillion-dollar budget is substantially less noticeable than it would be compared to the much smaller revenue picture in McHenry.

And, in both counties as well as Kane, the new road is expected to result in hundreds of millions of dollars in new business activity. This, of course, in addition to the parkway’s primary purpose of alleviating long years of bad traffic headaches in the region.

Read more here.

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Barrington Hills Park District Board meets tonight

Posted in Agendas, Algonquin Rd, Animal Welfare, Barrington Hills Farm, Barrington Hills Park District, Barrington Hills Polo Club, Bicyclists, ComEd Four, Commercial Horse Boarding, Countryside Elementary School, Deception, Ethics, Fox River Valley Hunt, FPDCC, FRVPC, Horizon Farm, Horse Boarding, Intergovernmental agreements (IGA), Land Use, Lighting Ordinance, Longmeadow Parkway, Mad Cow, Massbach Hounds, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, Public Safety, Riding Club of Barrington Hills, Transparency, Unions, WTF on May 10, 2023| Leave a Comment »

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The Barrington Hills Park District Board will hold a, “Park Board & Decennial Committee on Local Government Efficiency,” meeting this evening in person and via Zoom at 7:00 PM. Topics on their agenda include:

  • Horizon Farm Track Proposal
  • Local Government Efficiency Act Meeting
  • Review of Agreements with RCBH, FRVPC, FRVH

A copy of their agenda can be viewed here. Instructions for accessing the meeting remotely can be found here.

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Will McHenry County help bridge financial gap on Longmeadow? Officials aren’t sure.

Posted in BOHICA, Cook, County, Kane, Longmeadow Parkway, McHenry, Politics, Property Taxes, Taxes on May 2, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Bridge To Nowhere

McHenry County officials might consider a request to contribute financially to Kane County’s Longmeadow Parkway project. (Rick West | Staff Photographer)

While Kane County hopes its neighbors will help foot the bill for its Longmeadow Parkway project and keep it from becoming a tollway, some officials in McHenry County are hesitant about what’s being asked.

Kane County officials have asked neighboring McHenry and Cook counties to each front $1 million for the project, which spans more than 5 miles in the northern part of Kane County and passes through Algonquin, Carpentersville and Barrington Hills.

Kane County Board Chair Corinne Pierog recently told county board members she believes a combination of state money, COVID-19 recovery money and those contributions will pay off the bond the county issued to pay for Longmeadow’s construction.

McHenry County Board member Michael Skala, a Huntley Republican who heads the county board’s finance committee, said he isn’t sure where McHenry County would find that money.

“We’d have to figure out where to get it,” Skala said. “It’s a tough sell, especially when you have 18 board members.”

McHenry County Board Chair Mike Buehler, a Crystal Lake Republican, said Monday it wouldn’t be unprecedented for the county to contribute to projects outside of its boundary, citing the nearly $46 million Randall Road construction project from a few years ago.

More here.

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Kane County explores going big on lobbying

Posted in Algonquin Rd, County, FUBAR, Kane, Longmeadow Parkway, Politics, Property Taxes, Springfield, Taxes, Topics Of Interest on May 1, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Chair, other leaders want to spend $240K

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Kane County started experimenting with lobbying after the election of county board Chair Corinne Pierog. The result was millions of dollars in state funding for the Longmeadow Parkway project.

Perhaps spurred by recent success in wrangling enough state funds to wipe out the need for a toll on the Longmeadow Parkway, Kane County officials are contemplating their largest investment of taxpayer dollars toward lobbying at the state and federal levels.

Kane County Board Chair Corinne Pierog recently told county board members she believes a combination of state money, remaining COVID-19 relief money and cash contributions from neighboring counties will pay off the bond the county issued to pay for Longmeadow’s construction. But that’s only if $12.5 million for Longmeadow stays in the proposed state budget through the final vote.

“Fingers crossed,” Pierog told the board’s legislative committee. “I could not be happier.”

Getting that money into the state budget for Kane County is a result of lobbying efforts by Pierog, county board members and a private lobbying firm the county hired.

But the use of lobbyists by the county is a touchy subject with a history that goes back through at least the previous two county board chairs.

A previous board moved to eliminate lobbyists from the county budget in the waning tenure of former county board Chair Karen McConnaughay. Several board members didn’t like the political ties McConnaughay had with the lobbying firm the county used at the time.

Read more here.

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‘With fire in my belly’ to avoid toll, chair to urge Longmeadow funding from other counties, state

Posted in County, Kane, Longmeadow Parkway, Politics, Taxes on March 18, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Bag Lady

Kane County Chair Corinne Pierog says she will focus her near-term efforts on pushing for a combination of state and county funds to eliminate a toll for the Longmeadow Parkway.

The next few months may decide the ultimate fate of the toll portion of the Longmeadow Parkway.

Kane County Chair Corinne Pierog said during a virtual state-of-the-county address Friday she will focus her near-term efforts “with fire in my belly” on pushing for a combination of state and county funds to eliminate the toll before the entire parkway opens to traffic.

Soil contaminated with lead is the only remaining delay in finishing the 5.6-mile corridor on the northern end of Kane County.

Kane County Division of Transportation officials have a new plan to clean up that dirt and finish the project by the fall of 2024. If more money for Longmeadow is found by then, it will become the only locally operated bridge with a toll in the entire state.

The toll was planned because Kane County officials couldn’t get enough state or federal funds in the ramp-up to construction to avoid borrowing money, via a bond, to fund the project. The total bond payment is about $35 million.

The bond seemed to make the need for a toll to pay off that debt inevitable after county officials failed to squeeze any more cash out of the state to pay off the bond as construction began. But state lawmakers included $17.5 million for Longmeadow in the current budget.

Read more here.

Related: “$14 million lead contamination plan would open Longmeadow Parkway next year”

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Work to remove lead-tainted soil that’s delaying finish of Longmeadow Parkway to start this spring, officials say

Posted in County, Going green, Intergovernmental agreements (IGA), Kane, Land Use, Longmeadow Parkway, Plan Commission, Politics, Real Estate, Road construction, Topics Of Interest on March 4, 2023| Leave a Comment »

LMP Lead

Completion of the Longmeadow Parkway Corridor, which runs from Huntley Road in Carpentersville to Route 62 in Barrington Hills and includes the new toll bridge over the Fox River seen here, has been delayed by the need to remove lead-contaminated soil in the project’s final phase. (Mike Danahey / The Courier-News)

Removal of the lead-contaminated soil that’s held up completion of the $115 million Longmeadow Parkway Bridge Corridor is to begin this spring, Kane County Division of Transportation officials said.

The 5.6-mile regional road, which runs from Huntley Road in Carpentersville to Route 62 in Barrington Hills and includes a new toll bridge over the Fox River, is partially open but completion has been at a standstill because of the 60,000 cubic square feet of tainted dirt that requires special removal and disposal.

Kane County Board members approved a new contract in February under which the soil will be treated on site before it’s disposed of, said Steve Coffinbarger, division of transportation assistant director.

“We’ve made progress,” he said. “We’ll get started on that this spring.”

Once that work is finished in spring 2024, they can accept bids for the last stage of paving work needed, Coffinbarger said. If all goes according to plan, the entire roadway — including the bridge — will be open before the end of 2024, he said.

County and state officials have known there was contaminated soil on the site for decades. The former owner of the gun range site has been working with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to remove the lead, Coffinbarger said.

Read more here.

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$14 million lead contamination plan would open Longmeadow Parkway next year

Posted in Longmeadow Parkway, Plan Commission, Resident Spotlights on January 18, 2023| Leave a Comment »

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Cleanup would allow Longmeadow Parkway to open next year. (Paul Valade | Staff Photographer)

The Longmeadow Parkway project will not open to traffic in 2023, but Kane County officials believe they now have a solution to, literally, get the lead out.

The county board’s transportation committee gave preliminary approval Tuesday to a $14 million contract with Bartlett-based Bluff City Materials Inc.  to remove a mound of lead-contaminated soil just beyond the eastern edge of the Brunner Family Forest Preserve.

The $135 million Longmeadow project saw decades of planning to create a new crossing of the Fox River, ease traffic congestion and spur development on the northern end of the county. The project moved forward, despite late opposition from residents along the construction path, which bisected the Brunner Family Forest Preserve.

The project is funded through a mix of bonds and government funding, including some state money that might reduce, if not eliminate, the toll bridge aspect designed to pay off the bonds and support future maintenance.

The project is complete except for a small stretch just east of the Fox River. A pile of soil contaminated with lead sits there. Figuring out what to do about the lead has delayed the project’s completion for the past two years.

Read more here.

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Economic partnerships, Longmeadow completion on tap for 2023 in Kane County

Posted in County, Kane, Longmeadow Parkway, Taxes, Topics Of Interest on January 4, 2023| Leave a Comment »

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The long-awaited completion of the Longmeadow Parkway should arrive this year. Now county leaders are working to pay off the debt that helped fund it. (Paul Valade | Staff Photographer, 2022)

Kane County will see many economic initiatives come to fruition or continue to advance in 2023, Kane County Board Chair Corinne Pierog said.

They include regional economic planning grants to pay for the Longmeadow Parkway so it does not need to be a tollway, the development of workforce housing, support for small businesses and more electric vehicle charging stations.

As the Longmeadow Parkway on the county’s north side nears completion, the next step is to pay off the debt that helped fund it, Pierog said.

“Because of its regional nature, we were able to lobby the governor and … the allocation of $17.5 million should be coming through shortly to pay down the bond,” Pierog said. “We are advocating for another $17.5 million. We are actively working with our legislative partners and other counties to work on bringing down the rest of that bond so we won’t have to have a toll bridge.”

Read more here.

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