We feared new Route 178 would kill Utica Tom Collins News Tribune Senior Reporter
Ron Kreiser lives and works on Route 178 in Utica, a stone’s throw from the junction of Interstate 80. On a good day, it’s three minutes from the I80 turnoff to his doorstep. But Utica is booming these days and Kreiser now fights bumper-to-bumper traffic getting home.
“I avoid the four corners on the weekend because it takes a half hour to get from I80 to my shop,” said Kreiser, owner of Illinois Valley Fence & Pool. “I think they have a lot of traffic and when they realigned they should have made it four lanes instead of two.”
By “realigned,” he means the much disputed decision in 2004 to effectively move Route 178 out of downtown Utica. The decision didn’t sit well with villagers who feared traffic would simply whiz past downtown.
They need not have worried. It’s been two years since realignment was completed and the unwanted traffic has ushered in some decidedly welcome cash. Utica businesses are raking in more retail sales receipts than ever before, setting eight monthly sales tax records in the past seven quarters and averaging $250,000 a year since realignment was finished…