WREX.com – Rockford’s News LeaderMulti-Million Dollar Rochelle Road Expansion

Multi-Million Dollar Rochelle Road Expansion

By Inggrid Yonata

ROCHELLE - A multi-million dollar project in Rochelle will ease truck traffic through neighborhoods and speed up the process of getting in and out of the Union Pacific Rail Hub.  Rochelle's Mayor Chet Olson calls this a win-win situation for residents and businesses.  But one mom who lives along Jack Dame Road disagrees.

Right now Jack Dame Road is a one lane beaten down path with a dead end. It's also the area where Savannah Rosenbaum's kids play.  Rosenbaum is afraid the extra traffic will put her kids at risk.  "Once the road gets built, there's no privacy fence, there's a big danger because kids, they don't know any better," she said.  

City Engineer Sam Tesreau says the city will not put up any fence by the houses along jack dame road.  Instead a the city will have a 35-foot green space and a ditch that will act as a buffer zone.  By next summer, the road will expand to 3 lanes, getting semis straight to I-88 without having to go through residential areas on First Avenue.

Earlier today, community and business leaders break ground for a symbolic start to the Jack Dame Road expansion.   The extension will also connect 2 Rochelle industrial parks to the Union Pacific Railport.   Congressman Don Manzullo attended the groundbreaking. He said, "Any time you can have this type of activity going on, commerce begets commerce, that's what we're seeing here in Rochelle."

Construction is set to begin September 22 but that will not affect traffic.  Road closures on First Avenue West of South 12th Street will begin next year until the project is finished in the summer.