Rockford Area Chamber of Commerce
Rockford Area
Council of 100
515 North Court Street
Rockford, Illinois 61103
Ryan Petty
President
Rockford Area Chamber of
Commerce
Rockford Area Council of 100
515 N. Court Street
815-987-8100 ext 104
Mr.
Chairman,
Thank you for the opportunity to present before you
today. My name is Ryan Petty, I am
president of the Rockford Il, Area Chamber of Commerce and the Rockford Area
Council of 100, an Economic Development agency in the Rockford, Illinois
area. I would like to thank all of the
elected officials, and volunteers, for helping me prepare this testimony today.
I am here today to represent Northern, and Northwest
Illinois in a collaborative effort to enhance the highway infrastructure in
Boone, Ogle, Winnebago, Stephenson, Jo Daviess, and Carroll counties, bordered
by the western Chicago suburbs and the Mississippi river.
The state of Illinois is located at the crossroads
of America and is at the very heart of the nation’s transportation
network.
Despite our geographic importance to the national
transportation system, our state is suffering from a failing and incomplete
interstate, and state highway system.
The needs of our system are representative of the need for our state to
have the financial resources it needs to upgrade that system.
Our Northern Illinois region is strategically
located at a crossroads of the state of Illinois transportation system,.
We are part of three important highway corridors,
the Interstate 90 corridor connecting Chicago with the Northwestern United
States, the Interstate 39 corridor, a world class logistics center serving
Chicago, Minneapolis, Indianapolis, Madison, and Milwaukee, and US Highway 20,
full of unrealized potential to connect Northwest Illinois and South Western
Wisconsin to Iowa and the Interstate 35 NAFTA Corridor.
Our top regional transportation priority, United
States 20 from Freeport to Galena Illinois is the final piece of a stretch of
highway running from Chicago through Iowa connecting with I-35, a major north
south artery in our country. It forms
the final piece of the puzzle to allow for people and products to move
efficiently and safely east and west through our region.
Some important Facts about US 20:
·
Our
region has pursued a 4-lane US 20 for the past 50 years.
·
IDOT
numbers show there are more than 2 million people using the present
decrepit highway annually.
·
More
than 200 accidents occur every year on this stretch of roadway.
·
Tragically,
there have been dozens of fatalities over the past decades on the current US
20. One of those fatalities being the late Dr. Ruth Smith, President of
Highland Community College.
·
Galena,
in northwest Illinois is one of the biggest tourist draws in Illinois after the
City of Chicago and relies almost exclusively on US 20
·
In
1991 the United States Congress approved funding for an Environmental
Impact Statement (EIS) which is now completed.
·
In
2002, local agencies, with the help of a professional consultant identified 14
regional initiatives to contribute to the economic future of the region. US Highway 20 is one of the 14. Officials from 5 counties, 4 in Illinois and
1 in Wisconsin have identified this project as a priority
A 4-lane US 20 will be a badly needed economic
development engine to drive growth in our state and region.
The unemployment rates in our region as of January
2003 averaged 8.6 percent. Unemployment
in the city of Freeport was over 10 percent, well above the state and federal
average. Since 1998, our region has lost more than 8,000 well paying
manufacturing jobs – almost 20% of our entire manufacturing base.
Both Congressman Manzullo and Congressman
Lipinski have expressed support for the
US 20 project. This is good news on the House side, We need your support in the
Senate.
Along with US 20, congressman Manzullo has requested
funding for three high priority projects which we support within Winnebago
County.
The North Main Street project (Illinois 2) will
widen a 6 mile stretch of this congested major thoroughfare to 4 lanes. It will
ease traffic congestion, and perhaps more importantly, improve safety at a high
accident intersection. This project has been on the books at the Department of
Transportation for more than 30 years.
Engineering work is complete and construction on this project could
begin as early as 2004.
The West State Street (Business US 20) corridor
reconstruction project will reconstruct and widen 4 mile stretch of state
highway that is the western entry to the center of the Rockford Urban
area. West State Street is one of four
30-year old entryways to the city of Rockford, this one serving our
underdeveloped west side.
Recently, Winnebago County has completed a beltway
project around the city, this beltway, coupled with the award of a HOPE VI
grant shows that the City of Rockford And Winnebago County are committed to
revitalizing this section of our community.
Congressman Manzullo has also requested engineering
funds to remove a toll both on Interstate 90.
The convergence of Interstate 90 and Interstate 39 creates significant
congestion due to a poorly located 15 cent toll plaza. The bottle neck has been the source of
numerous truck rollovers and has caused tremendous delays costing companies
millions of dollars in lost time. To
create further congestion, Union Pacific will open its new Global III Inter-modal
Facility in Rochelle, IL this year, adding over 1,000 additional truck trips per
day onto the interstate system.
Our state must have the funding it needs to solve
these problems and we must make use of every federal resource to improve this
infrastructure. Our congressman
Manzullo has asked for each of these projects as earmarks in the upcoming
legislation. The award of any earmarks
must not jeopardize existing programs and state funding. That will not solve the problem. If our state and our region is to continue to
contribute to the national economy, increase our share, and funding for
projects of regional and national implication must be over and above the
regular guarantee for general highway improvements.
Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the opportunity to
present before you today. The projects
in Northern and Northwest Illinois are prime examples of how an investment in
infrastructure can preserve jobs, even entire regions.