Route 45 improvement plan crawls along

A road project on Vernon Hills' wish list for more than two decades continues to inch ahead, although lane closures along Route 45 remain a long way off.

The Illinois Department of Transportation has targeted spring for a public hearing on the proposed plan to widen more than four miles of the busy highway from Route 60 in Mundelein, southeast through Indian Creek and Vernon Hills and ending at Route 22 in Lincolnshire.

The agency continues steps to complete Phase 1 of the project, which includes preliminary engineering and study. This is the furthest the project has progressed since 1988, when Vernon Hills officials asked IDOT to consider improving Route 45.

As part of the process the agency is meeting with owners of public property owners such as the Vernon Hills Park District. Carriage Green Park and Kelli Garvanian Park could be impacted by the proposed road work.

Jeff Fougerousse, the district's executive director, said a possible 4- to 7-foot tall retaining wall included in the plan would obscure Garvanian Park.

“You may not even know there's a park on the other side of the wall,” he said.

Meanwhile, one recent change in the plan would allow bicycle/pedestrian paths for the entire length of the project, rather than just through Vernon Hills.

“We're accommodating all users, not just the motoring public,” said Ojas Patel, project engineer for IDOT.

Communities within the work area can opt out of the path improvements, but the land will be acquired and graded in such a way that a path could be installed at a later date, he added.

Vernon Hills officials last spring were told that a barrier median for a portion of the project had been eliminated and the road narrowed and shifted as far south as possible. The changes would save 173 trees, although 250 trees still will need to be removed.

Patel said he hoped to secure design approvals for Phase 1 studies by next summer, following the public session.

“They're just going through the normal updating of the plans and trying to put a bow on it, basically to finish up the project so that they can have their open house,” said David Brown, village engineer and public works director.

Phase 2 of the project will see designers draw up construction plans for bidding, a process that takes from 18 months to two years.

Estimates provided to the village two years ago placed construction costs at more than $38 million. Right-of-way acquisition and engineering could add as much as $17 million.

Engineering for Phase 2 is funded, but land acquisition is not and there is no funding for the construction, Patel said.

“It's a funding issue right now. They've made that pretty clear,” Fougerousse said.