Crews working full-bore to finish Rt. 22, Milwaukee work in Lincolnshire

Less than a month on the job, and already Vern Guttman has seen the downside of road work.

The BP station he manages at Route 22 and Milwaukee Avenue occupies the hot corner of what at times is a dashboard-pounding, oath-inducing traffic jam in Lincolnshire.

And since traffic was shifted to the east side of Milwaukee Avenue, motorists who want to enter the station from that street have to carefully cross a packed gravel base. Business has dipped about 20 percent since, he said.

"They've switched lanes," Guttman said. "It's not clear they (motorists) know they can still get in here."

Next door, Marino Martinez, assistant manager at McDonald's, shakes his head when asked about the road work, now scheduled to continue until late September.

"People don't want to stop," he said. Despite promotional specials, business is off about 25 percent.

And both know Milwaukee Avenue access for their businesses soon will be closed completely for two to three weeks. The village has temporarily waived its rules to allow signs to be posted directing motorists to the Route 22 entrances.

Though the project is relatively short in length, the reconstruction of the intersection and widening of the legs that feed into it have created a dreaded bottleneck each day for more than 25,000 motorists.

That it continues is starting to wear on some drivers, particularly since one section or another of Route 22 in the village has been under construction for about 8 consecutive years.

"Sometimes at four o'clock, the line going north is a mile long," said Bill Hurlbutt, a vocal Lincolnshire resident who bemoaned the wasted time and gasoline.

Construction at the intersection started last summer but was snagged when fiber optic cable unexpectedly was discovered in the path of road and drainage improvements. A water main also had to be relocated.

The cable carries communications for major businesses along the Tri-State Tollway, according to Chris Aspegren, project manager for Berger Excavating Contractors Inc., the general contractor.

Moving fiber optic is a much more involved process than splicing traditional cable, he explained, and required extra time and a specialized contractor.

By the time everything was squared away, it was too late to pour concrete and the new northbound lanes, which were to have been paved last fall, had to wait until spring.

Because it was an unforeseen condition, the Illinois Department of Transportation granted Berger an extension of the $4.9 million contract without penalty. The new completion date is Sept. 24.

That hasn't been popular with drivers.

"I think people are sitting in traffic and they're frustrated and it's in Lincolnshire so they send an e-mail," said Robert Horne, the village's engineering supervisor.

Seeing few workers on site is a common complaint, he added. It appears that way at times because engineers or others are coordinating what will be done next.

That hasn't been the case recently, as a large contingent of workers and equipment pursue an aggressive schedule, according to Horne.

"I can tell you without hesitation that since the first week in March, unless it's been raining, there's been someone working," he said.

That's been good news on the east side of Milwaukee Avenue, where the new pavement is in place. George Thottapurathu said customers are returning to his Marathon station.

"I lost about 70 percent of my business. Everybody was avoiding this area," he said.

When complete, the intersection will be more than 100 feet wide, with dual left-turn lanes, two through lanes and a right-turn lane on Route 22. On Milwaukee Avenue, there will be extended left-turn lanes, two through lanes and a right-turn lane in each direction.

So it goes with what technically is the fourth separate project to widen Route 22 through Lincolnshire.

"When I interned for my job in 1997, they had the plans here and were asking me questions about Route 22. I've seen records in our files dating to 1969," explained Jennifer Hughes, who had Horne's job before being named public works director.

Route 22 has been widened from east of Milwaukee to the Tri-State Tollway and west of Milwaukee to Route 83. A new bridge also was built at the tollway.

"Drivers in this community definitely need a break from road construction because it's been a long time coming," Horne said.

But at some point, sections of Route 22 east of the tollway to Route 41, between Route 83 and Quentin Road and west of Route 12 to Route 14 will be widened.

And if Route 45 from Mundelein through Vernon Hills is widened, as is being pursued by those communities, the Milwaukee/Route 22 intersection again will be a target, with even more lanes added.

"The work they're doing on Milwaukee Avenue isn't the ultimate configuration at Route 22," Hughes said.

There is some solace, however.

"It's probably seven to 10 years off, depending on state funding," she added.