While most of you head east for a living, the opening of the Eola Road interchange on Interstate 88 just might make life better for those of you who use the Route 59 exit. Or may be some of you might use it for the first time this holiday season. It opened Saturday 10 years after it was proposed and six months after construction started.
The interchange is designed to decrease congestion on Route 59, and those coming and going to Aurora a fifth option to I-88.
Have you noticed any difference in traffic because of it? Do you think it will make a difference in traffic in Naperville?
I tried the new exit - the exit is great. However, have you tried to drive south on Eola Road between 4PM and 7PM? It is as bad as Rt 59 with fewer lanes. Looks like another fiasco to me. Another case of the govt saying "Build it and they will believe anything."
I thought that part of the goal of the Eola exist was to help alleviate congestion of people existing on Farnsworth going to the Outlet Mall.
Heading home west on 59, I can exit at 59, hop on Ferry to Eola and not waste too much extra time, if going that way.
Problem is the train station not the tollway. Traffic backs up both ways to it. Another bridge at Commons Ave. might help and be needed before Rt. 59 can be widened. Adding longer and added turn lanes and traffic light timing on 59 could help, but that is years away.
Sounds like it is going to take the cheapskates and creatures of habit a while to figure out what the smart money already knows... that the additional cost of the toll is a better value than the time and gasoline spent waiting in traffic on Rt 59...
I won't laugh to fast or to loud though. While I'm saving 15-20 minutes each way on my daily commute right now that probably won't last. When it finally dawns on everyone else that Eola Road is quicker and faster then we will probably be pretty much right back to where we used to be.
Enjoy it while it lasts.
I've heard that 59 was always supposed to have a toll, but the exit backed up onto the highway from the day it opened, and they figured it didn't need any more of a slow down.
Can you see Russia from this bridge?
In the governments infinite wisdom they will solve the problem by somehow making people pay for certain exits / entrances to 59 instead of eliminating them on Eola. that way no one feels left out.
Hummm, sounds like its just useful as the bridge to nowhere
I agree that a toll makes it less likely for me to want to use the Eola interchange. I don't use this route on a regular basis, so I may not be aware of problems that occur, but I think the issues are more of a north-south deal than an east-west problem.
Drove down I-88 today. Heading west I saw many people getting off at 59, none at Eola. Heading east, there were people getting off at Eola and at 59. Since you have to pay to get off at Eola heading west, it didn't surprise me to see no one using the Eola ramp at that time. (This was around noon.) Why pay at Eola if you can get off at 59 and not pay?
I think if you are heading east, you can get off at Eola without paying since you have just paid a toll at the Aurora plaza.
Won't change mine at all. Why go to Eola and pay when 59 is free? Diehl congestion isn't the problem, it's the north-south portion that sucks.