Barrington's $8 million sewer project to close downtown streets in 2017
The village of Barrington's $8 million project to replace aging sewers, a water main and streets in and around the village's downtown next year cleared another hurdle last week when the village purchased vacant land on West Liberty Street.
Greg Summers, director of development services for Barrington, said the land just west of Paul's Burrito Express restaurant will be used as a staging ground for contractors throughout the eight- to nine-month project.
The work, which village officials have called one Barrington's largest infrastructure projects in many years, will begin in February or March 2017. Summers said workers will dig down to the existing sewer pipe, which is beyond its functional life, remove it and then replace it with new pipe installed deeper underground.
Placing the sewer deeper will reduce overflows which sometimes occur at the intersection of Russell and Lincoln streets during heavy rains, Summers said.
Starting near the vacant land on West Liberty Street, crews will work east until they reach North Avenue and then head south until they hit East Main Street.
Work will continue east until South Wool Street, where crews will go south through the Metra commuter parking lot. They will then work underneath the train tracks and continue moving south on South Summit Street before finishing near the intersection with East Russell Street.
Summers said some trenches will be as wide as entire streets, meaning residents will have to make accommodations.
"There will be residents who can't access their driveways for short periods of time," he added. "It's going to be challenging to live on that route, but in the end of course they are all going to get new streets, curbs and sidewalks."
The work will be funded through an $8 million bond issue the village board approved last summer.
Summers said if residents living along the project route haven't received a notice about the work from the village they are encouraged to contact the development services department.