After years of delays, Weber Drive rebuild set to begin in Arlington Heights and Rolling Meadows

A long-planned and much-delayed $2.86 million reconstruction of a north-south thoroughfare on the border of Arlington Heights and Rolling Meadows will finally get shovels in the ground this fall, officials said.

Weber Drive, also known as Old Wilke Road, is a 0.6-mile, two-lane stretch between Algonquin Road and Central Road that straddles the municipal borders of the two Northwest suburbs.

The street, which has been in Rolling Meadows’ capital improvement plan for years, is in poor condition and has outdated traffic signals and pedestrian crossings, officials said.

The neighboring towns launched planning efforts for the roadway reconstruction in 2021 by splitting the costs of a phase one design engineering study, and continued with a phase two study two years later.

But as the project was set to go out to bid in early 2025, the two towns encountered delays related to land acquisition “pretty late in the process,” said Rolling Meadows Public Works Director Aaron Grosskopf.

A last-minute lien was placed on the title of a property the city was trying to obtain. That led the Illinois Department of Transportation to go through the condemnation process since the property owner was unable to resolve the lien within a set time period, Grosskopf said.

IDOT finally let the project out July 31, with the low bid going to Hoffman Estates-based Plote Construction. Once the state officially awards the project and inks contracts in the coming weeks, construction should begin this fall and continue into 2027, Grosskopf said.

Besides the full reconstruction of the roadway, plans call for the addition of a southbound right-turn lane on Weber Drive approaching the Algonquin Road intersection, and resulting changes to the traffic signal. Crossings will also be updated with new pedestrian signal heads, countdown timers and accessible ramps.

An 8-foot-wide bike path on the west side of the street will also be extended up to Central Road.

The project got a $1.39 million federal grant from the Surface Transportation Program, leaving the two towns to cover the remaining $1.46 million.

Rolling Meadows will pay $765,095, representing 52.12%, and Arlington Heights will pay $696,605, or 47.88%, according to an intergovernmental agreement Rolling Meadows’ city council approved Tuesday and Arlington Heights’ village board approved July 6.

Generally, the west half of the roadway is under the jurisdiction of Rolling Meadows, and the east portion is Arlington Heights.

cplacek@dailyherald.com