Trying to make I-80 a toll road from Morris through 294. All this would do is push Semi traffic onto the regular roads.

JOLIET, IL — For more than a year, there's been much discussion about the problematic and antiquated stretch of Interstate 80 through Joliet. Many people believe the bridge over the Des Plaines is unsafe. Others want more lanes of traffic. Now, a possible solution is moving forward, thanks to State Rep. Larry Walsh, WJOL's 1340-AM radio station is reporting.

According to Joliet's news station, Walsh informed WJOL on Monday morning that he has introduced a bill to begin the process of making I-80 into a toll road. According to the Joliet radio station, the I-80 toll road would begin around Morris at Route 47 and last for several miles, all the way to Interstate 294, which leads to Wisconsin and Indiana.

Nowadays, there are between 80,000 and 100,000 vehicles using that stretch of I-80 daily, the station indicated.

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This is probably happening due to the death (?) of the proposed Iliana Expressway, which was supposed to be a privately-funded (ha!!!) toll road cutting further south that would have bypassed I-80, and was supposed to alleviate the growing traffic issues on 80.

The problem is not I-80 in and of itself, rather the absolute explosion of distribution centers/intermodal hubs near it from Joliet westward. The semi traffic has become ridiculous through that stretch (with semitrailer-related accidents spiking), and has made the once quiet areas west of I-55 a huge pain in the ass to get out of. A MAJOR reason of the many why we decided to GTFO.

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Not a mult.

Once you get past Minooka it thins out a lot. But yes, it’s gotten progressively busier between 55 and say, Morris over the 19 years we’ve driven down there. We generally use it to visit father in law vs 88 for my family.

I feel like I read on this board that one of the major terminals in Elwood that is causing all of this will be moving in the next few years as soon as their tax break ends.

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i wish op's premise was true... because then there wouldnt be any traffic on 294.

And you can see the same thing coming on the I-355 expansion... DC after DC being built around there because nobody else is building anything, so the price of the land has to be a relative steal. Much of it is brand new construction and hasn't been populated yet, but in five years, I could see it being a mess.

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