Taylor Avenue tunnel project in Glen Ellyn progressing on schedule
The construction of a new Taylor Avenue tunnel is making major progress in a Glen Ellyn neighborhood east of downtown.
When the project is complete, there will be two parallel underpasses running below the Union Pacific West Line. The new tunnel will accommodate pedestrians and provide a safer route that separates them from cars bypassing the tracks through the existing tunnel to the west, engineers say.
Cast-in-place concrete headwalls now stand at each end of the pedestrian tunnel - a steel pipe 12 feet in diameter. During one week in November, a shielded excavator installed a roughly 60-foot-long section of the new tunnel, a nonstop boring process that pushed the pipe through the railroad embankment.
"Following that, there was quite a bit of work that needed to be completed in terms of welding the sections of pipe together and then demobilizing the equipment," said Rich Daubert, the village's professional engineer.
What's left to do? This week, the concrete floor will be placed inside of the new tunnel installed on the east side of the existing Taylor underpass.
A multiuse, 8-foot-wide path has to be built from Willis Street to the north, through the new tunnel and ending at Walnut Street to the south.
Contractors also have to complete roadwork inside the existing tunnel and throughout the project limits.
In an update to the village board Monday, Daubert said overall construction remains on schedule and still should be substantially wrapped up by the end of the month.
"We're cautiously optimistic that the work will be completed on time and that both the vehicular tunnel and the pedestrian tunnel will be reopened to traffic," Daubert said. "However, there's always a possibility for delays if we have inclement weather or there's material delays."
Pedestrians and car traffic used to share the existing underpass along Taylor Avenue: a one-lane, dimly lit tunnel. Anyone on foot had to walk single-file, while traffic moved one vehicle at a time between the rough walls. That path will be removed, and the driving lane widened an additional 2½ feet to allow traffic to maneuver more easily.
Also still to come are reinstalled traffic lights.
"ComEd still needs to install the service after the electrical contractor completes installing the new traffic signal controller," Daubert told trustees. " ... We do have provisions in place for a backup plan if that work is not completed. The contractor has some temporary traffic signals. But again, we're very positive that we're going to complete this project on time."
In the spring, sod will be placed on the parkway, among other punch-list items. And the precast and cast-in-place concrete walls stamped to look like masonry will be stained to "look like a natural stone," Daubert said.
Grants will cover about 80 percent of the roughly $3 million in construction costs.