South Elgin's Bowes Road extension on track to ease truck traffic

The $4.1 million state-funded project to connect Bowes Road to Route 31 in South Elgin is on track to be done by fall, weather permitting.

The new 4,400-foot stretch of road, more than three-quarters of a mile extending Bowes Road from where it ends east of McLean Boulevard, will ease access for semitrailer trucks that serve existing businesses and open up for development about 60 acres nearby, South Elgin Village Administrator Steve Super said. The village's planned new public works facility will occupy 12 of those acres, he said.

"We are hoping that (Bowes Road) will be completed before the snow falls this year while the asphalt plants are still open," he said.

The village has received nearly $3.3 million in grant money from the Illinois Department of Transportation to pay contractor Plote Construction, Super said. The village will fund the remaining $820,000, which the state will reimburse once the project is finished.

Semitrailer trucks are currently using Sundown Road off Route 31 to access the nearby industrial area, but that intersection was not designed to handle such traffic, Super said.

"They hop the curb, they have knocked down light poles, they have damaged property and vehicles, and it causes congestion," he said.

Once the road is extended, trucks will be able to drive along Bowes Road and south onto Schneider Drive to access businesses, he said.

"It's a two-pronged approach for economic development, one for the existing businesses and for the future, to hopefully attract new industrial development," he said.

Also, trucks are forbidden from going west on Sundown Road past Martin Drive through a residential neighborhood, but they do anyway, he said. "(The extension) will also reduce that traffic," Super said.

The village's new public works facility will be built off Schneider Drive and Bowes Road. The estimated $7 million project will be funded by about $4 million in bonds plus village reserves, Super said. Earthwork will cost up to an additional $750,000, he said.

"None of the funding will require additional fees or taxes," he said.

At 50,000 square feet, the new facility will more than double the current building, which is poorly designed and needs extensive maintenance work, Super said.

"We have been overusing it for more than a decade," he said. "It's time for us to have a modern facility."

The first of three rounds of bids for the public works project will begin Aug. 12. If everything proceeds smoothly and according to budget forecasts, construction will start in November and the building will be open by July. If not, construction will begin in spring and be done by late fall 2016, Super said.