Linking up Interstate Highway 80 with an extension of Interstate Highway 355 is the best way to ease Will County’s transportation crunch, Mokena officials told Illinois Department of Transportation representatives Monday.
Meanwhile, Patrick Pechnick, an IDOT bureau chief, outlined alternatives to the extension, which has been stalled in court.
Alternatives to building an extension between Interstate Highway 355 in Bolingbrook and Interstate Highway 80 in New Lenox include building a highway between Interstate Highway 55 and Interstate Highway 80. The road would mostly parallel Lemont Road, Pechnick said.
A Lemont bypass with a second bridge over the DesPlaines River is the second alternative, and enhancing arterial roads, such as U.S. Highways 53 and 173, Joliet Road, Lemont Road and Gougar Road is the third.
“[The extension] should have been done already, and we should be here talking about another [road]” Mayor Robert Chiszar said.
Drivers’ travel options are limited, Mokena Trustee Mike Everett said. “You’ve got a lot of roads going nowhere and when they converge, they all converge in the same spot,” Everett said.
Trustee Joe Siwinski criticized the Lemont bypass option.
“This thing with all the stoplights, it’s like Cicero Avenue or something. It’s ridiculous,” Siwinski said.
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