Summer of road repairs ahead for Manchester Road in Wheaton

DuPage County government employees won't be the only drivers dealing with traffic disruptions during a summerlong construction project on a busy Wheaton street.

Contractors hired by the Illinois Department of Transporation will have to come up with a convoluted traffic control plan for the resurfacing of Manchester Road from County Farm Road to Gables Boulevard, just west of the bridge over the Union Pacific Railroad tracks.

That 1.2-mile stretch is expected to remain open during the project, but road repairs will stand in the way of drivers headed to the county complex, the courthouse, the county fairgrounds and neighborhoods west of downtown.

Crews also will likely make accommodations for bus traffic around Monroe Middle School and the Jefferson Early Childhood Center, which itself will remain a construction zone until a new building opens to students next school year.

"It is a pretty significant area that we're doing," said Sarang Lagvankar, Wheaton's senior project engineer.

IDOT is administering federal funds for the project and dictating the schedule. The city anticipates work will begin in late May and last until August.

Engineers estimate the city's share will cost roughly $175,000 for construction and just shy of $9,000 for construction observation, Lagvankar said. The city council was slated Tuesday to approve the third phase of engineering services for the project.

Manchester - the main arterial road connecting the city's west and east sides - hasn't been repaved in about 15 years.

Also heavily used is the Manchester entrance to the county complex. DuPage officials will advise drivers to instead use the entrance off County Farm Road.

The DuPage County Fair Association is looking to redirect traffic through the county complex for the five-day run of the fair starting July 22.

Organizers last year encouraged fairgoers to exit that way to an intersection with signals at County Farm to ease congestion on Manchester.

Guests also drove through the county complex to a parking lot on the north end of the fairgrounds when the city replaced a water main on Manchester last fall, Executive Manager Jim McGuire said.

"We would like to direct all our traffic that way," McGuire said in an email Tuesday. "It would take away inconvenience for our neighbors, as well as having our guests leaving at a traffic-controlled intersection, onto a major north south roadway."

Lagvankar said officials will discuss the traffic flow around the fair, school activities and other obstacles with contractors. All that will be determined after the state finalizes construction contracts.

"There's a lot of unknowns at this point without the state actually awarding the project," Lagvankar said.