Arlington Heights rebuilds Northwest Hwy.-Wilke intersection

Arlington Heights is working toward a rebuilding of the intersection of Northwest Highway and Wilke Road just north of Arlington Park and the Metra station, to make it safer for pedestrians.

The village board this week authorized spending an additional $28,000 for engineering in the hopes of obtaining state and federal funding of almost $1 million. The project is currently estimated to cost $3.3 million, with the Illinois Department of Transportation agreeing to pay $2 million.

The village contracted with Elgin engineers Hampton, Lenzini and Renwick three years ago to design the intersection. The Illinois Department of Transportation has agreed to pay half the costs of engineering up to $100,000.

The village's share of the original engineering bill is $82,579, and the new contract will add $28,000. The total engineering bill is now $210,361.

The redesign will include a double left turn from north Wilke to westbound Northwest Highway at the railroad tracks, said Jim Massarelli, Arlington Heights director of engineering.

The railroad crossing is the responsibility of Union Pacific, he said, and hopefully the railroad will rebuild it at the same time.

“Right now we are just looking at the geometry of how the whole intersection functions,” he said.

The problem is the safety of pedestrians crossing Northwest Highway, said Massarelli, although the situation improved when the public works department put in curb cuts and painted a crosswalk.

A new traffic signal with more accessible buttons for pedestrian crossing signals is one of the plans in the reconstruction, he said. It is difficult to predict when construction can start because so many entities are involved.

In related business, a map of plans for resurfacing or rebuilding village streets and sidewalks will be released next week, said Massarelli.

The board approved a bid of almost $3 million from Arrow Road Construction of Mount Prospect for resurfacing and rebuilding sidewalks.

The village had been concerned about what rising petroleum prices would do to the bids, but they actually came in under estimate because IDOT is now allowing a higher percentage of pavement made from reclaimed asphalt, according to a report from the engineering department.

“We really didn't see the rising prices in that bid at all,” said Massarelli.