Route 31 projects to make the drive slow

Cool your tempers and get ready for gridlock.

If you're passing through Elgin or South Elgin, it's a bad time to drive on Route 31. Here's why.

Starting today, Kane County will close a small stretch of Route 31 from just south of Hancock Avenue to 500 feet south of the former Illinois Central Railroad tracks.

This is being done to facilitate construction of a bridge on Route 31 that will carry motorists over a new portion of Stearns Road.

Stearns Road is being extended between Route 25 and McLean Boulevard, a project due to conclude in two years, a county official said. The bridge on Route 31 should be completed by the end of January.

On Tuesday workers moved utility lines, and that will continue today with traffic rerouted, said Manny Gomez, assistant director of project implementation for the Kane County Division of Transportation. Tree removal begins Thursday and excavation starts Friday, he said.

The development aims to ease congestion on the village's other main roads and offer another east-west route.

"Once it gets finished, it's going to relieve a lot of traffic going over the State Street bridge," South Elgin Public Works Director Chuck Behm said.

While construction moves along in South Elgin, officials recommend Spring Street and McLean Boulevard as alternate local routes.

Regional detours involve using Route 20, Randall Road and Route 64 as thoroughfares, county officials said.

Meanwhile in Elgin, the ongoing $3.9 million facelift to its portion of Route 31 between Route 20 and north of I-90 has led to short-term lane closures as well.

The Illinois Department of Transportation is in charge of the project along the 3½-mile stretch that ends this fall.