Pavement collapse closes Diamond Lake Road in Long Grove
Diamond Lake Road between Gilmer Road and Route 60/83 in Long Grove will remain closed to all but local traffic for the foreseeable future as Lake County transportation officials deal with the road's sudden collapse.
About a car length of pavement across the entire road caved in Friday after the collapse of a culvert under the road about midway between Indian Creek Road and Gilmer Road, where Indian Creek passes beneath the rural road. The culvert was scheduled to be replaced next summer but deteriorated more quickly than anticipated because of heavy rain this season, according to the Lake County Division of Transportation.
A detour using Gilmer Road and Route 83 was put in place Friday, and Monday crews installed concrete safety barriers that will remain in use while the situation is evaluated. Rain this weekend caused some erosion but nothing more than expected, said county spokeswoman Brooke Hooker. Water continued to flow through a second culvert at that location, she said.
Officials now are determining how best to correct the problem. Until that is determined, there won't be a timeline for a repair.
The culvert that failed is about 6½ feet tall and 14 feet in diameter.
"It has to be custom-ordered and manufactured," Hooker said. "We're researching all the different pieces we need to make a decision. Once we know that, we'll have a timeline."
The road needs to be fully closed to replace the culvert, and the work needs to be done before the new school year begins, she said.
"We sent our crews out to all the other culverts that were scheduled for replacement in the next couple of years. Everything looks fine," Hooker said.
Diamond Lake Road carries fewer than 4,000 vehicles per day south of Indian Creek Road, and about 8,000 per day to the north. In comparison, the detour route of Gilmer Road carries about 12,000 vehicles per day and Route 83 carries about 30,000.
No additional traffic delays were reported along the detour route. But Hooker noted Allanson Road is closed at the railroad crossing between Butterfield Road and Route 45, which has added a significant number of cars to the area.
The Mundelein Park & Recreation District, which operates Diamond Lake Beach to the north of Route 60/83, has not reported an impact on its operations.
"It's not one of our very highly traveled roads and the detour route doesn't take people very far out of their way," Hooker said. "It's obviously a high priority. We're trying to do it as fast as we can."