Gurnee road reconstruction project on hold

The long-awaited reconstruction of a stretch of Washington Street in Gurnee won't begin until a nearby road project is complete, officials said Monday.

Planners with the Lake County transportation division want to hold off until the crews are done rebuilding the Route 120 bridge over the Tri-State Tollway before tearing up Washington between Milwaukee Avenue and Route 41.

The Route 120 project is being run by the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority and should wrap up in July, said Glenn Petko, a Lake County construction engineer. Barricades should go up on Washington Street later that month, he said.

Simultaneously limiting traffic on two heavily traveled east-west arteries in the same area would be too much for motorists, Petko said.

With an expected price tag of nearly $17 million, the Washington Street effort will be the costliest road project in county history, Petko said. It will eclipse the $13 million spent to widen Butterfield Road between routes 176 and 137 in Libertyville.

That work was part of a much larger project that stretched to Route 45 in Vernon Hills.

Washington Street's surface -- last improved in the early 1970s -- will be torn up and replaced.

"Getting 35 years out of a road carrying 30,000 vehicles per day can be considered getting all of the useful life out of this pavement," Petko said.

The unusually harsh weather this past winter, which damaged roads throughout the Chicago area, wasn't a factor, Petko said. Planning for the project actually began in 2000.

Washington will be reduced from four lanes to two during the project, which should be completed in October 2009. Half of the road will be worked on at a time.

Detour routes will not be posted because the road will remain open, Petko said.

In addition to replacing the road surface, crews will repair two bridges over the Des Plaines River, just east of Milwaukee Avenue. One bridge handles eastbound traffic and the other serves westbound vehicles.

Additionally, a raised, decorative median planter -- similar to those on Butterfield Road -- will be installed to replace much of the existing guardrail median.

Traffic signals at Six Flags Drive, Milwaukee Avenue, O'Plaine Road and elsewhere in the zone will be interconnected as well to improve traffic flow as part of the larger Lake County Passage program.

The intersection of Washington and O'Plaine also will be widened.

The Lake County Board is expected to approve the contract for the work next week. Lake County Grading Co. of Libertyville is set to handle the job.

For more information on this and other county road projects, visit www.lakegov.info/roadwork, the transportation division's official roadwork site.

Washington Street … by the numbers

Roadwork is planned for a stretch of Washington Street through Gurnee. Here's a look at the project, which is set to begin in July.

7,658: In feet, the length of the work zone. (It's roughly 1½ miles.)

$16.6 million: Estimated cost of the project

1972-73: The last time Washington Street was reconstructed

2: Number of lanes available to traffic once work begins. There are four now.

7: Number of intersections to receive interconnected traffic signals as part of the work

0: The number of Lake County road projects that have cost more than this one.

Source: Lake County transportation division