Glen Ellyn to improve Crescent Boulevard near Glenbard West
Work on a roughly $2.9 million project to improve Crescent Boulevard near Glenbard West High School is expected to begin this summer.
A portion of the Glen Ellyn project's costs will be funded through the federal Surface Transportation Program and the Illinois Transportation Enhancement Program.
The project, which will span Crescent from Park Boulevard to Lake Road, includes reconstructing Crescent in concrete, improving the intersection at Park, creating a new roundabout intersection at Crescent Court and Park Row, installing new sidewalks and providing new parallel parking lanes.
Among its other features, there also will be a raised crosswalk as well as a curbed median across the frontage of the high school with landscaping and an irrigation system.
The Illinois Department of Transportation will be the contracting agency.
Bob Minix, professional engineer for the village, said officials anticipate the bulk of construction will occur this summer.
"We want to have a usable roadway by the time the 2015-2016 school year starts toward the end of August," Minix said.
The village received input from Glenbard High School District 87 for the project and an intergovernmental agreement has been approved between the two agencies.
The school district will deed some of its property to the village and provide temporary easements so work can be completed, Assistant Superintendent Chris McClain said. The deeded property is not really used for any specific school purpose, he said.
The district also will lose some parking spaces and pay an amount not to exceed $75,000 for median irrigation.
The village will provide up to 16 diagonal parking spaces on the west side of Park Row in a separate project to be done this year. McClain said the district thinks it can recover the spots by reconfiguring its staff parking lot.
McClain said the project will help improve safety in the area.
He said he thinks the roundabout will force drivers to slow down, the median will prevent people from making U-turns in front of the school and the raised crosswalk will help drivers see pedestrians.
"So from our perspective, we think it's going to be a lot safer for our students and really for the community, too."