Rt. 60 closings coming early
Motorists on Route 60 through Vernon Hills, Mettawa and Lake Forest are being told to brace for major delays beginning next week.
An eastbound lane will be closed starting Wednesday, weather permitting, as the $18.5 million project to widen the bridge over the Tri-State Tollway gets under way.
"If you don't have to drive through that area we advise you not to," said Mike Claffey, spokesman for the Illinois Department of Transportation.
The project to reconstruct and widen the bridge was announced last week. Local municipal and business officials thought permanent lane closures wouldn't begin until March, however, and were surprised at the schedule.
"Yes, it's a little bit earlier than anticipated, but I guess it's better than having the project drag on for two years," said Bill Baltutis, director of the TMA of Lake-Cook, a consortium of businesses dealing with transportation issues.
The eastbound lane will be closed for temporary widening of Route 60. By the end of November, all traffic will be moved to the south side of the road.
One lane will be open in each direction with single left turn lanes at each intersection between Riverwoods Road on the west and Sanders Road/Field Drive on the east. This will allow crews to widen the north side of the bridge, a process expected to continue until mid-May.
Traffic would then be shifted to the completed north side of Route 60 as the south side is rebuilt and widened. That part of the project is scheduled to be complete and open to traffic in December 2008. Landscaping and other incidentals would be finished the following spring.
"That's a pretty tight schedule," Baltutis said.
Pavement on Route 60 from Riverwoods Road to Saunders Road as well as portions of the ramps also will be rebuilt.
When complete, the bridge will be have three through lanes in each direction with dual left-turn lanes at the Tri-State ramps and at Saunders Road/Field Drive.
"It's going to be challenging, we recognize that. But in the long term it's a badly needed project," Claffey said.
Route 60 has become an irritating bottleneck in recent years, as several major businesses are located near the tollway. A new office with 2,400 employees is scheduled to open in February, and two new hotels are under construction.
According to IDOT, nearly 37,000 vehicles a day travel Route 60 from the west of the tollway, which carries more than 131,000 vehicles a day north of the Route 60 interchange.
Because of the expected impact, businesses in the Conway Park complex forged a precedent-setting agreement with the Illinois Toll Highway Authority.
The businesses will pay about $2.6 million for a temporary link from the north end of Field Drive to the northbound tollway at the Lake Forest oasis.