Barrington asks for ICC to extend deadline related to railroad crossing pedestrian safety gates

More than two years since the death of Barrington High School student Marin Lacson, Barrington community members are still waiting for pedestrian safety gates at the Hough Street crossing where she was killed.

Barrington officials, however, insist the project is proceeding, even though the village has filed for a six-month extension of its interim order with the Illinois Commerce Commission, which is hearing the petition of the village and the Illinois Department of Transportation.

“I would say that we see continuous movement, at all of our status hearings,” Deputy Village Manager Marie Hansen said. “Whether or not that movement is as much as we would like.”

But she added the village does not control the review and approval process.

The request to extend the June 18 deadline to Dec. 18, officials said, is to make sure the village remains eligible to receive reimbursement from the state for engineering and design work at the Union Pacific crossings receiving the gates — Hough Street, Main Street, Cook Street and Hillside Avenue.

Village officials say they have spent their own funds to help move the project forward.

Hansen said engineering plans are 95% complete. However, the petition states the project and engineering work have been complicated by the project’s complexity and the need for additional UP property through land acquisition.

Significant progress has been made on land acquisition, the petition states, but additional time is needed with respect to both engineering and land acquisition.

Roma Khan, who founded the Barrington Student Safety Organization in the wake of Lacson’s death, said the organization is opposed to the extension.

“This will delay the pedestrian gates project into late 2027,” she submitted in a public comment.

She complained the village’s current downtown streetscape upgrades were delaying the gates as well.

“Instead of prioritizing public safety from a known threat that has already harmed multiple children, the village of Barrington is prioritizing a vanity ‘Streetscape Project’ which is interfering with the gates installation,” she added.

Hansen denied the streetscape improvements affects the pedestrian gate project.

“The streetscape work and proposed Park Avenue Plaza work are completely independent of the pedestrian gates,” she said. “While we have worked to ensure all of these projects will physically tie together, they do not impact each other’s timelines.”