Illinois Route 53 Research Paper

Illinois Route 53 is a road that thousands of people utilize everyday, with so many people commuting on it, there are talks about expansion to help speed up commutes, however, Route 53 should not be extended because the project would be costly for commuters, homeowners, and the general taxpayers.
One way that it is costly is simply the cost of the projects. The expansion is projected to cost from 2.2 billion to 2.7 billion dollars of taxpayer money. What this will be used for it to buy the land that is in the way of the planned road as well as materials and then you have to pay for the labor. Most of this for a road that we might not even need. Many residents if Cook County have mentioned that there “no reason that residents of this area should support a roadway for Lake County”(Src: Unknown, Daily Herald) as residents of Cook County already “incurring lots of extra expenses due to being in the far border of Cook County and receiving very little in return”(Src: Unknown, Daily Herald). There are already roads that commuters are able to take advantage of and it is much cheaper as there wouldn’t be as many tolls, which …show more content…
Another way that it is costly is the tolls will cost “20 cents per mile”(Src: Daily Hearald), which will make it one of the most expensive roads to drive on. Commuters have mentioned that they use Route 53 almost daily because it is a “convenient way to get around”(Src: Unknown, Daily Herald). However, it was also mentioned that they would “stop utilizing this road if they begin charging tolls.”(Src: Unknown, DailyHerald). Like many other residents, they “can get to these same places easily without utilizing route 53”(Src: Unknown, Daily Herald). From public comments, it is seen that people would not like to spend 20 cents per mile on top of their gas price just to save a couple of