Innovative Interchange Integrates Pedestrians, Transit & Tollway

This unique transportation facility in the Chicago suburb of Hoffman Estates showcases the innovative integration of pedestrian mobility, transit and tollway infrastructure. Crawford, Murphy & Tilly (CMT) has been the lead consultant for the major elements of this $80 million initiative involving a joint effort between the Village of Hoffman Estates, Illinois Tollway, Illinois Department of Transportation, Pace and the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA).

The initial project was the planning and design of the new interchange of Barrington Road at the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway (I-90). CMT led a context-sensitive design process to address capacity issues, as well as provide better bicycle and pedestrian connectivity. The design also had to address the future Suburban Transit Access Route Line (STAR Line) with conceptual park-n-ride along Hoffman Estates, and to accommodate the Pace I-90 market expansion project including park-n-rides at this location for bus rapid transit on I-90.

Upon selection of the unique single point urban interchange (SPUI) type by the highway agencies, Pace selected a transit configuration that included: the region’s first exclusive bus rapid transit lanes with access from interchange ramps, bus pullouts, pedestrian over/under-passes of I-90 and the ramps, parking lot, kiss-n-ride, access improvements to the local street system for the park-n-ride, and bicycle and pedestrian connections to the existing network.

CMT also provided architectural design for the adjacent pedestrian overpass to link the bus stops on the north and south sides of the I-90 mainline.