Route 20 ramp work means traffic changes in Elgin

Elgin commuters should see a host of stop signs, open roads and barricades that they’ve never seen before.

The city is preparing for Wednesday, when the Illinois Department of Transportation shuts down the eastbound entrance ramp from McLean Boulevard to Route 20 while it builds a temporary bridge. After that work, the agency will embark on a three-year, $50 million project to replace and widen the north and south bridges there.

The ramp will be closed from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and bridge work is expected to last 90 days.

Elgin authorities found out about the work last Thursday — ramp closures had not been part of the plan — and are implementing the traffic measures a few days early to give motorists a chance to get used to them.

The city has rolled out several temporary traffic strategies to help ease the commute and route motorists to roads designed to carry heavier traffic.

Among them is South Street.

South Street at Edison Street was a four-way stop, but authorities have removed the stop signs on the South Street portion to keep traffic going, Lt. Glenn Theriault said. On the downside, it limits access to the Sunset Park subdivision.

They have also modified the dangerous intersection at South and Walnut streets. Authorities closed a block-long portion of South Street there, which in turn pushes traffic to Walnut Street, a street that handles 4,000 vehicles daily, Theriault said. The stop sign at Walnut Street has been removed to keep traffic flowing freely and to prevent a westbound clog. Northbound motorists would access South Street and Walnut Street via Marguerite Street.

At the five-legged intersection where South, Wilcox and Erie streets meet, authorities have turned it into an all-way stop. They also posted dead end signs at South Street to warn them about the street’s closure near Walnut Street.

Authorities also converted South and Vine streets into an all-way stop, much to the delight of neighbors who have spent more than a decade fighting for stop signs on the South Street part of that intersection.

And engineers have manually adjusted the traffic signals at Lillian Street and McLean Boulevard to favor motorists heading westbound from Lillian to McLean. This will help ease traffic congestion, as the signals currently favor people leaving the nearby Elgin mall.

If you’d rather avoid the Lillian/South/Walnut Street corridor, you can always use Weld Road as a detour to get to Elgin Community College. But you’ll have to drive three miles west to go three miles east.

Elgin police will monitor these detours and modify them if necessary. Some could even become permanent measures, based on their success, Theriault said.

“Hopefully this is all overreaction,” Theriault said. “Hopefully what we’ve done at the end of the day is clean up a few accident-prone intersections and let traffic move a little faster, but we’ll adjust accordingly as we need to.”

Don’t think police will get lax in enforcement.

Officers will be out looking for speeders and distracted drivers on Route 20 and Walnut Street throughout the duration of the project.

That includes motorists who talk or text on cellphones while they drive through the construction zone.

“It doesn’t get you anywhere any faster talking on a phone in a construction zone,” Theriault said. “It just gets people injured.”

If you have questions, call the Elgin Police Department’s traffic line (847) 289-2660. Also, from noon to 1 p.m. on March 14, Mayor Dave Kaptain will address the new traffic initiatives during his live chat with the mayor. It will be held in the Seigle Auditorium at Elgin Community College.