Open house for Ill. 57 improvements set for Sept. 1; upgrades city wants would cost $74.5 million

QUINCY — A summary of recommendations from the Illinois Department of Transportation for improvement on the Ill. 57 corridor south of Quincy shows three options for each of the three sections of the highway.

However, when IDOT has an open house to discuss the options from 4 to 6 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 1 at the Atrium, 201 S. Third, Chuck Bevelheimer wants people to show up — and he wants them to know which options they should select.

Quincy Mayor Mike Troup told aldermen at the beginning of Monday’s Quincy City Council meeting about the open house. Bevelheimer, director of the city’s planning and development department, also passed out information in council chambers detailing the options before IDOT.

“I want to let people know which ones are going to have a significant impact,” Bevelheimer said. “If I was Tom Oakley (a longtime transportation advocate for west-central Illinois who died in April), I know I would be jumping up and down right now.”

IDOT presented on July 13 to the Quincy Community Advisory Group its recommendations. Options provided were based on engineering and traffic safety criteria, as well as social, economic and environmental constraints.

The 13-mile Ill. 57 corridor is divided into three sections: Urban (Broadway to York), Suburban (York to Radio Road) and Rural (Radio Road to I-172). Recommendations for each section are:

Urban Section (Broadway to York)

• Alternative U-1: Upgrade existing road to improve ride quality, traffic control with road safety and mobility improvements ($1,500,000)
• Alternative U-2: Convert Third and Fourth Streets to two-way traffic on each street (known as decoupling) to improve mobility, safety and ride quality ($5,500,000). NOTE: IDOT also would consider extending the conversions of Third and Fourth Streets to two-way traffic from Broadway to Locust as well.

Suburban Section (York to Radio Road)

• Alternative S-1: Upgrade existing road by adding turn lanes and safety improvements ($7,000,000)
• Alternative S-2: Expanding road to three and four lanes to improve safety and mobility ($17,500,000)

Rural Section (Radio Road to I-172)

• Alternative R-1: Upgrade existing road with some safety and mobility improvements ($7,000,000)
• Alternative R-1A: Upgrade existing road with Marblehead bypass ($20,500,000)
• Alternative R-2: Add an alternating passing lane from Radio Road to I-172 with Marblehead bypass ($51,500,000)

The cost of a basic upgrade of Ill. 57 is $15.5 million. Bevelheimer wants people to let IDOT know they are in favor of a more substantial improvement — decoupling Third and Fourth, expanding Ill. 57 to three and four lanes from York to Radio Road and adding an alternating passing lane from Radio Road to I-172 with Marblehead Bypass.

The price tag for those improvements would be $74.5 million. The project would be paid for with state dollars.

“A Marblehead bypass would make that road so much safer and allow commerce to move so much better,” Bevelheimer said. “It’s also not going to be as congested when we have trucks traveling the same route as passenger vehicles.

“If we’re going to make improvements to Ill. 57, we ought to make improvements that are 20-year improvements — not just for today or tomorrow but for long term.”

Aldermen also approved: 

• A special event application from the Rotary Club of Quincy requesting permission to hold Oktoberfest on Sept. 24 on York Street between Ninth and 10th Streets. 
• A special event application from Todd Klauser of Quincy Notre Dame requesting permission to hold Quincy Notre Dame’s homecoming parade at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 6 on Hampshire and Maine in downtown Quincy.
• A special event application from Gregory Wellman of the Quincy Public Schools requesting permission to hold the Quincy High School homecoming parade at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 15.
• Two variances from the Zoning Code of the City of Quincy based on the board’s consideration of both horizontal and vertical setbacks between the residentially-zoned structure and the proposed downtown-zoned parking lot at 920 York, 922 York, 300-302 S. 10^th and 304 S. 10^th.
• The addition of Parker Freiburg (R-3) to the Technology Committee and Patty Maples (D-6) to the Aeronautics Committee as voting members. 
• Buying white and yellow paint from Ennis-Flint, Inc., Greensboro, N.C., for $16,270.65, and buying reflective beads from Potter Industries, LLC of Valley Forge, Pa., in the amount of $1,552 for striping streets, painting intersection sidewalks, curbs and handicapped stalls. 
• Spending $13,024 with QED Environmental Systems of Atlanta for the replacement of a GEM5000 portable gas extraction monitor. 
• Spending $1,698,925 with Diamond Construction for capital improvement projects in Wards 4, 5 and 6 which comprise the replacement of deteriorating pavement, sidewalk replacement and replacement of 23 lead water service lines. 
• The closure of Ninth Street from Jackson to Van Buren for all Quincy Notre Dame home football games on Friday nights or Saturday afternoons this fall.

Aldermen heard a request from Barb Wehmer, who wants to apply for a grant to help address obesity in Quincy’s schools. They also saw a new officer, Marcus Landes of Camp Point, sworn into the Quincy Police Department. Landes previously worked for the Adams County Jail.