Drivers, beware of downtown Barrington starting Monday

Drivers will find the going more difficult through downtown Barrington starting Monday.

Barrington officials said a section of Main Street will be closed for an estimated four weeks to accommodate sanitary sewer replacement work. It's part of an overall $8 million project that began last year to replace aging sewers, streets and other infrastructure in and around downtown.

Known as Lake-Cook Road outside Barrington, eastbound Main will be shut at Spring Street and the westbound side blocked at Wool Street. The barricades will be up by 4 a.m. or so Monday, said Barrington's director of development services, Greg Summers.

Drivers will be diverted to a detour using Route 59/Hough Street and Northwest Highway. With Barrington's Metra station near the construction and a draw for commuters outside the village, Summers said they are urged to allot extra travel time.

"The police have been advised," Summers said Friday, "and they'll keep extra attention on this area. We've been warning people for a year and a half this was coming."

Commuters who use the Metra station's north parking lot also will be affected because a part of it is scheduled to close at 1 a.m. Tuesday so it can be converted into a fenced construction staging area by Wool Street. Village employees placed fliers on vehicles Friday warning of the upcoming closure, which is expected to result in the loss of about 35 spaces.

In an effort to create more public parking during the construction, the village has an agreement providing three-hour shopper spaces before 5 p.m. in an AT&T lot on the west side of the company's building at 430 E. Main. There is not a time limit after 5 p.m., but overnight parking is prohibited.

Barrington's sanitary sewer work continued to move south Friday on North Avenue toward Main. It will jog east on Main and south down Wool over the four weeks.

Officials said entrances to the Metra station will be available on Spring at Main on the west and Klingenberg Lane off Northwest Highway on the east.

Summers said another leg of the project will follow continuing south on Wool through the Metra parking lot, likely lasting three or four months.

In 2018, the sewer project is slated to resume moving south, going under the Union Pacific Railroad tracks used by Metra and down Summit Street, while extending to sections of Lincoln Avenue and Russell Street.

"That's an intense portion of the work," Summers said. "Just the approvals and the caution that it requires to go under live railroad tracks is a large exercise."

Barrington village board trustees in 2015 approved borrowing the $8 million for the infrastructure work through the sale of bonds to investors.