Barrington's Main Street reopens to drivers
Drivers can again use all of Main Street in downtown Barrington after sewer and water line replacement work was completed, village officials said Monday.
Known as Lake-Cook Road outside Barrington, eastbound Main at Spring Street and the westbound side at Wool Street had been barricaded since July 10. Drivers were diverted to a detour using Route 59/Hough Street and Northwest Highway.
It no longer is necessary to detour around Main Street, because both sides reopened to traffic Sunday afternoon, said Greg Summers, Barrington's director of development services. He said two construction crews were used daily to complete the job on time within a three-week deadline.
"It went very smoothly," Summers said Monday. "A lot of utility coordinations, coordination with Nicor (Gas) and AT&T specifically, out there. There was a lot of effort put into it, but everybody worked together. That's the reason it went off so smoothly and quickly."
Barrington started an overall $8 million project last year to replace aging sewers, streets and other infrastructure in and around downtown. A continuation of that work led to the three-week partial closure of Main Street.
Crews replaced the water mains and sanitary and storm sewers south from North Avenue to Main. The work proceeded east on Main and south on Wool.
Parking still is restricted on Main between North and Wool, due to work on both sides of the street. Wool remains closed to traffic due to continuing storm and sanitary sewer replacement, so drivers are encouraged to use Spring as an alternative to reach Barrington's Metra station from Main.
Rolling daytime street closures are expected to begin in the next couple of days to accommodate an additional water line project on North Avenue, Summers said. Ela Street can be used as an alternative for North.
Barrington village trustees in 2015 approved borrowing the $8 million for the infrastructure work through the sale of bonds to investors.