Decorative streetlights to be added to part of Route 45 in Mundelein

Mundelein's on-again, off-again downtown streetscape improvement project soon should be back on - but just in one area, village officials said Tuesday.

Eighteen decorative streetlights are set to be added to a section of Route 45 between Park Street and Wellington Avenue, south of Route 176. The work will be partially funded by a $250,000 federal grant administered by the Illinois Department of Transportation, officials said.

Village officials recently agreed to apply for a $400,000 grant to help pay for other aesthetic improvements in that area, including planters, trees and brick-paved sidewalks.

"We (originally) had applied for a grant to cover all of this, but we didn't get as much as we requested," Assistant Village Administrator Michael Flynn said.

The $250,000 grant for the lights covers 80 percent of the project's estimated $315,000 cost, leaving the village with a tab for the remaining 20 percent, Flynn said. If approved, the new grant also would require a 20-percent match from the village. That effort could cost about $500,000 overall.

Construction of the foundation for the light poles could start in late fall, Village Engineer Bill Emmerich said. The work will be done by H&H Electric Co., a Franklin Park firm hired by the state, Emmerich said.

Plans need to be approved by state officials, he said.

The work could be completed by next summer, Emmerich said.

The lights and the other elements have been added to other streets in the downtown area as part of an ambitious but frequently stalled project dating back to the late 1990s.

The effort was supposed to give the village's main business district a cohesive look and old-fashioned charm. Village leaders talked of spending $1 million a year for 15 years on the work.

But construction delays, growing local economic problems and the recession took their toll on the project, and it was mothballed in 2002.

Officials considered resuscitating it in 2007 but eventually declined because of funding concerns.

The stretch of Route 45 that will receive the new streetlights includes Emil's Pizza, medical offices and retail shops.

Portions of the busy roadway just south of that section already have received aesthetic upgrades.

The new work "will be a noticeable improvement in the streetscape in front of those businesses," Flynn said.