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Construction set to resume in West Dundee

Construction at routes 72 and 31 will soon resume

Enjoy the unimpeded flow of Dundee Township traffic through the intersection of routes 72 and 31 for now because soon long waiting lines of cars will return.

Illinois Department of Transportation engineers are waiting for the snow to stop and the ground under the bumpy roads to thaw to continue widening the intersection so daily traffic jams are things of the past.

Construction could resume March 24 or April 1, said Francisco Abreu, resident IDOT engineer.

“Everything depends on the weather,” he said. “The sooner we get started, the better.”

When crews do start, they will remind motorists what life was like on West Dundee's major roads last year before the snow and the cold took over. Reduced lanes forced long lines of cars to stretch eastward from Route 31 to beyond the bridge crossing the Fox River.

On the other side of the road, cars lined up westward from the intersection to Sleepy Hollow Road. West Dundee police put up signs in surrounding neighborhoods warning drivers to be patient and not use local streets as shortcuts.

Déjà vu all over again may exist because when construction crews start, they will reduce lanes on all sides of the roads to install concrete medians in the middle of the highways near the intersections.

“We're planning for the project to be completed in summer,” Abreu said. “The weather has not been cooperating this year. In milder winters, we usually started our projects in February.”

Whenever construction workers start, this year will entail phase 3 of the $2.9 million road project. The first two phases included moving utility poles and overhead traffic signals and adding turn lanes to the intersection used by tens of thousands of cars and trucks daily.

West Dundee village leaders applaud the work so far, but they are eager to have the project done, said Village Manager Joseph Cavallaro.

“I wish there was more of a definite completion date. We'd like to know if (the work) will be done in the middle of summer, like July,” said Cavallaro.

Like the beginning of this year, the weather will dictate when it will resume and when it will end, Abreu said.

“We had a late start last year because we had to wait for the utilities to be moved,” he said.

Regardless of the reason or the date work will resume, village officials are renewing their advice to motorists to have patience, avoid shortcuts, obey speed limits, and watch for construction while driving in the area.

  Spring brings warmer weather - and the resumption of a construction project along routes 31 and 72 in West Dundee. Brian Hill/bhill@dailyherald.com ¬
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