New Rollins Road to open to traffic but drivers will face detours
Trains will keep rolling through Round Lake Beach but for the first time they won't create delays on Rollins Road.
Traffic is scheduled to shift Thursday onto a newly built Rollins Road beneath a railroad bridge immediately west of Route 83, a milestone in a what has been described as the most complicated and expensive road project undertaken by the Lake County Division of Transportation.
"This is one of the bigger steps," said Glenn Petko, engineer of construction for the department. The shift means anyone driving east or west on Rollins Road or north or south on Route 83 will travel an uninterrupted path at least until November.
"If they've been avoiding the area, now might be time to start thinking about coming through again," said Mark Molnar, project manager for Alfred Benesch & Company, the consultant overseeing the project. "Things will move a lot quicker without that rail crossing there."
The project is designed to eliminate frustrating tie-ups at the busy intersection caused by as many as 50 commuter and freight trains that cross Rollins Road daily immediately west of Route 83.
But this latest progress will come at a price, as no turns will be allowed at the intersection and traffic will face a lengthy detour.
"The problem is there's nothing really close. We have to send everybody down to Washington Street," Petko said. Drivers should check the project website, http://www.rollinsroadgateway.com/.
Route 83 traffic is being carried over Rollins Road on a temporary bridge and also will continue unimpeded. With the shift to new Rollins Road, there will be no traffic control signals on either road until turn lanes are restored.
"There's a chunk of pavement we can't build on 83 because temporary Rollins is in the way," Molnar said. "We can't keep traffic running on one and build the other."
Utility work for the $69 million project began in 2012 and construction began last August. The original finish date for all the new pavement, including an expanded Route 83, was this December. Utility conflicts have delayed the job at various times, according to Petko and Molnar, and completion has been rescheduled to June 2015.
During the next few weeks, new pavement for the west side of Route 83 will be installed, with the hope that one lane in each direction with a turn lane will open by mid-November. At that point, the temporary bridge over Rollins Road will have been dismantled and the intersection with signals restored. Traffic would be shifted onto the new pavement on the west side and will stay that way until the east side of Route 83 is rebuilt next year.
When complete, both roads will have two through lanes in each direction and two left-turn lanes and a right-turn lane at each leg of the intersection.
Petko said the new Rollins Road underpass should give drivers a preview of what to expect next year to the southeast in Grayslake when work begins to lower Washington Street beneath the same rail line.