Arlington Heights to wrap up upgrades of downtown garages

Arlington Heights is scheduled this summer to wrap up its $2.3 million, multiyear program to upgrade four village-owned garages in the downtown.

The last part of the four-phase project, expected to begin in May and finish by July, includes maintenance and repair of the Evergreen underground parking structure in the Arlington Town Square shopping center, and eliminating a sightline hazard in the Vail garage.

The scope and cost of the work - $94,740 - is much less than in previous garage rehab projects, which began in 2015.

The proposed improvements at the 20-year-old, 370-space Evergreen garage include concrete repairs, waterproofing, caulking, pavement restriping, new wayfinding signs, and door and stair upgrades.

At the Vail garage, crews will knock down a first-level west concrete wall to improve pedestrian sightlines. Officials think the wall was constructed higher to block headlights from shining into houses to the west, but a garage addition has since been built over Highland Avenue.

Cris Papierniak, the village's assistant director of public works, expects portions of the Evergreen garage will be closed during construction, which will run from mid-May to July 4.

After a pre-construction meeting next week, village officials plan to publicize details about exactly when and where the closures will take place.

The rehab work started in 2015 on the top floors of all village-owned garages and the entire Municipal garage attached to village hall. That was followed by work on the North garage at Arlington Heights Road and Miner Street, then Vail, and finally Evergreen.