Transportation

Sterling has been awarded over $300,000 in federal grant funding to improve road safety, U.S. Rep. Eric Sorensen, D-Rockford, announced Monday.

Several road closures in and around the downtown Rock Falls area are planned for Friday, Nov. 22, because of events surrounding the Rock Falls Chamber Hometown Holidays.

The need for assistance has continued to rise in Will County since the COVID-19 pandemic. And that need is highest among families working one or more jobs.

DuPage County is eyeing the possibility of putting a multimillion-dollar transportation complex on the county fairgrounds property in Wheaton.

The center will bring 55 full-time jobs and amenities that include gas stations, electric vehicle charging stations, a restaurant, convenience store and over 80 short-term overnight parking spaces for long-haul truckers.

The Lincoln Highway Commission’s mission was to create a thoroughfare across America. The route began at Times Square in New York City and ended in Lincoln Park in San Francisco.

Traffic is being rerouted.

The Lake County Division of Transportation is nearing completion on a preliminary engineering study for improvements to Rollins Road in Fox Lake.

The Illinois Department of Transportation has announced construction will begin on the bridge carrying U.S. 30 over the Union Pacific Railroad in Lee County.

Work scheduled to be completed by Nov. 1.

Drivers on several McHenry County roads will need to slow down going forward.

The city of Joliet will be working with the state of Illinois on an engineering study for a potential grade separation project at the Laraway Road and Union Pacific Railroad grade crossing.

Funding for public transportation has become a top priority for some lawmakers over the past two years as transit agencies in Chicago area have sounded alarm bells on a looming financial crisis.

The Village of Minooka released a statement Friday afternoon voicing its concern over the heavy truck traffic that a Canadian National logistics hub currently in the planning process would bring to the city, though the hub, itself, will be in Channahon.

The city of Joliet plans construction on Theodore Street west of Wesmere Parkway to begin in spring 2025. Construction is underway now east of Wesmere.

Work will begin Monday on Richards Street, between Colburn and Fifth avenues, in Joliet, according to an announcement by the Illinois Department of Transportation.The $20 million project will rebuild the road and rehabilitate the bridge over Hickory Creek.

Joliet city officials now call tram a shuttle, compare it to past trolley bus used to shuttle residents around downtown.

The council at its meeting Monday night approved appropriating $655,203, or as much as is needed, to match the required funding to complete the proposed bike path.

The one-lane closure will be on South Galena Avenue between Third and Sixth streets.

The Saratoga Community Consolidated School District 60C announced Tuesday morning that it has decided not to dissolve and outsource the district's transportation.

A meeting focusing on the future of Wilmington-Peotone Road, between Interstate 55 and Drecksler Road, in Will County will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 9.

On Sept. 19, the Illinois Senate Transportation Committee held a hearing on the state of public transit and its impact on climate change at Lake County’s Central Permit Facility in Libertyville.

The work zone is east of Prairieville Road outside of Sterling. Work will repair an inlet in the median. One lane will be closed in each direction to do the work.

Once completed, the pathway would start south of the railroad tracks at the corner of Nachusa Avenue and Broadway Street. It would continue south until it reaches Bloody Gulch Road, where it would swing east and tie into the city’s Gateway development.

New interchange planned for Lockport Street/Airport Road. Route 126 interchange would be reconstructed.

The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning is launching a major survey called My Daily Travel this fall to better understand the travel needs of residents in northeastern Illinois, including Lake County.

Town Hall Road and Melugins Grove Road will be closed south of U.S. 30 and will have marked detours during the project.

Plans to extend rail service between Chicago and Rockford is the topic of public meetings Tuesday in Elgin and Wednesday in Huntley. Stops are planned for both towns.

Dixon Public Works says a crew from Visu-Sewer will be on Fargo Avenue to line the sewer main from Monday, Sept. 16, through Friday, Sept. 20.

Huntley has been chosen as a stop on a new Chicago-to-Rockford Metra train line, and local officials are mulling where in downtown Huntley the station might go.

Construction is scheduled to begin Monday, Sept. 16, on the Illinois 78 bridge over Interstate 88 in Whiteside County, weather permitting, the Illinois Department of Transportation announced.

Vintage steam locomotive does not disappoint rail fans who came from miles around.

The lines were long, but the wait was worth it for the estimated 61,000 people who journeyed to Ogle County on Sunday to see the Union Pacific’s Big Boy 4014 steam engine. Parked at the Union Pacific’s Global lll Intermodal Terminal (GB3), southwest of town, thousands made the trip to see the historic locomotive at the free, daylong event.

Railroad enthusiasts and others watch the big steam engine head east

The Illinois Department of Transportation announced Friday that weather permitting, construction will begin Monday, Sept. 9, on the Illinois 26 bridge over Coon Creek in Lee County.

The Illinois Department of Transportation has announced that, weather permitting, construction on Freeport Road in Ogle and Whiteside counties will begin this week.

Metra will offer special service on the Heritage Corridor Line on six Saturdays this fall, so residents can explore the communities along the route that begins in Joliet and ends in Chicago at Union Station.

Plans call for a purple route and a white route that run every hour, Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. The two routes would intersect in the middle of Dixon’s downtown area so riders would be able to transfer between the two routes.

Work is expected to continue until late September.

Will County Executive Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant focused on expanding government services and the strength of the local business climate in her annual State of the County address. Some budget priorities outlined.

The Lake County Division of Transportation has launched a new interactive dashboard displaying the more than 300 projects in its 2024-2029 Transportation Improvement Program that was recently adopted by the Lake County Board.

IDOT is hosting a telephone town hall meeting at 6 p.m. Aug. 15.

Work to be done by the end of August.

DuPage County commuters can share their vision for trains and buses Friday at a Senate transit forum in Naperville

The actual work on the project is estimated to begin late winter or early spring.

The new Dial-a-Ride. service boundary allows residents to travel anywhere in Will County and locations within one mile of the county border, plus parts of southern Cook County.

City officials expect the work to be substantially completed by the end of October.

Will County will hold the meeting at the Nowell Park Recreation Center in Joliet on Tuesday to discuss the first phase of the project.

Three of the four ramps connecting to and from I-88 will be closed as part of the project.

The Kane County Committee of the Whole will discuss the future of public transit, as speakers will detail proposed legislation that would merge the CTA, Metra and Pace into a single agency.