Some Elgin residents were hearing 'loud booms.' Trucks hitting rough pavement were to blame.
Residents in the southwest area of Elgin who complained of hearing loud "booms" said they're happy city and state officials listened to them and fixed the problem.
Sue Webb, president of the Elgin South West Area Neighbors group, said residents met in March with Public Works Superintendent Aaron Neal and representatives from the Illinois Department of Transportation, which then worked to address the problem along Route 20.
The noises are believed to be caused by semitrailer trucks with empty containers hitting rough pavement, IDOT spokesman Guy Tridgell said. Maintenance crews patched a slab approaching the Route 20 bridge over the Fox River and milled down bumps along Route 20 west of the river to past Route 31, he said. No other work is planned but the department will continue to monitor it, he said.
"We thank you for the city helping us to get this fixed and for being able to sleep at night," Webb said at the Elgin City Council meeting Wednesday night. "It is such a blessing to have our windows open."
Webb also thanked state Rep. Anna Moeller for helping set up the March meeting.
More than 20 residents had signed a petition in October asking the state - which has jurisdiction over Route 31 and Route 20 - to address the issue.
Residents at first thought the noise might be due to semitrailer trucks driving over the Route 31 bridge over Route 20.
An IDOT inspector confirmed that portion of Route 31 had "a poor riding surface," but initially it was not clear whether Elgin or IDOT should fix it. The city is in charge of surface maintenance for Route 31, but city officials questioned whether that included bridges.
Later it was determined the problem was along Route 20.