Route 45 work moving along ... really, it is

It's a question that usually comes from the back seat on a long road trip: Are we there yet?

Drivers who have been navigating construction on Route 45 between Libertyville and Grayslake have been wondering the same thing.

The answers provide both hope and a sigh as work continues on two separate but connected pieces of the busy state route.

The second year of an $8.1 million project to widen a two-mile stretch of Route 45 between Route 137 and Route 120 is coming to a close.

"We're about 80 percent complete," said Troy Wancket, an engineer with the Illinois Department of Transportation who is overseeing the project.

The last sections of concrete roadway are expected to be installed next week.

"They've been working every day but you have to do the curb and gutter and that takes some time. There's only two days left with the big paver."

About three weeks were lost because of the laborers' strike, Wancket explained, so the original completion date of Oct. 31 may drift into November.

When finished, the concrete road will have two lanes in each direction with left turn lanes at key points and a landscaped median. Traffic signals will be installed where there had been none at Arbor Boulevard/Jones Point Road and at Casey Road.

To the north, trees have been cleared and work has started to relocate utilities along a 1.5-mile stretch of Route 45 from Route 120 to Washington Street.

The $13 million plan, first proposed decades ago, will be similar to that on the south, with the road widened to four lanes.

Utility relocation, expected to be done by Oct. 31, represents the bulk of the work this fall, according to Wancket, who also is overseeing this project for IDOT.

Once the utilities are moved, work will continue through the winter to install an upgraded storm sewer system. The heavy lifting begins next spring with the replacement of the southbound lanes.

That immediately will be followed by new northbound lanes in the same construction year, rather than in two seasons, as was the case to the south. Completion is expected at the end of October 2011.

The project also includes an 18-foot wide landscaped barrier median across from the former Lake County Fairgrounds. Business owners and others in the area unsuccessfully argued the median would cut off access. The plan was modified to include selected intermittent left turn lanes to allow drivers to reach those businesses directly or by making a U-turn.

Traffic signals at Center Street, Gages Lake Road, Brae Loch Road and Washington Street will be replaced.

A lane of traffic in each direction will be maintained and there will be periodic flaggers.