Key McLean route to be closed until Dec. '10

In the year and half that McLean Boulevard in South Elgin was ripped up, widened and rebuilt, Rabin Dranath watched business at Suburban Video decline 25 to 30 percent.

Now, with McLean at Route 31 scheduled to close this Friday until December 2010 to make way for the Stearns Road Bridge project, Dranath is bracing for the worse.

"This is outrageous," said Dranath, owner of the 20-year-old store at 50 S. McLean. "If they close that for a year and a half, I may have to close the shop. There is no other choice."

The closure will help make way for Stearns Road to be extended from the Kane and DuPage County line near Bartlett across the Fox River to connect with McDonald Road and ultimately Randall Road.

But it will be the second significant construction project to limit access on McLean in as many years - which has business owners like Dranath worried.

South Elgin Village President Jim Hansen said the $23.3 million federal project will relieve congestion in the village and will ensure all the major roads leading into the village are less than seven years old.

"We're just going to have to deal with it," he said. "The help way outweighs the hurt."

David Boesch, project manager for the Kane County Division of Transportation, said detour routes will be posted.

"We've designed this to try to reduce the impact on people as much as possible," he said. "We're asking for everyone's patience and understanding."

Boesch said the project also will widen from two lanes to four lanes the stretch of McLean from Route 31 to Spring Street. Part of that stretch on McLean from Spring Street to Lancaster recently was repaved by the Illinois Department of Transportation, he said.

Boesch said he did not know why IDOT repaved that area. But IDOT spokeswoman Marisa Kollias said repaving that stretch was part of the Stearns Road project under Kane County's jurisdiction.

Some estimate the project also will decrease traffic along Route 64 (Main Street) in St. Charles by 10 percent.