Spring is less than a month away. Can road construction be far behind?
Arlington Heights residents will have to cope with three major projects this year.
The good news, village officials say, is that the projects won’t begin until the weather warms.
The bad news is that they will involve key arteries through the village.
“These projects will be disruptive, but they will help improve those roads, which will help with both congestion and safety,” said Mark Schoeffmann, director of engineering for the village.
The first project will involve resurfacing Rand Road–U.S. Highway 12–through the entire village except for a gap at Palatine and Arlington Heights Roads.
“There was some patching done along Rand Road in the fall,” Schoeffmann said. “The surface condition of Rand Road has especially deteriorated in the last few years.”
The $3 million project will involve 6.5 miles of pavement patching, milling and resurfacing the roadway, from Illinois Highway 53 to Wolf Road. Some minor curb and drainage work also will be done.
Similar work will take place along Northwest Highway–U.S. Highway 14–later this year, from Vail Avenue on the west to Mt. Prospect on the east, Schoeffmann said. This project will cost nearly $3 million.
“The work will be disruptive because of lane closures, which will cause some backups,” he said. “There will be no detours, but traffic will be reduced from four lanes to two lanes and occasionally one lane.”
Work is also scheduled this year along Illinois 53 from north of Rand Road to just north of Euclid Avenue. The $3.8 million resurfacing project will start in spring.
October is the expected completion date for the projects, conducted by the Illinois Department of Transportation.
Palatine and Willow Roads are slated for similar work, but not until next year or 2003, Schoeffmann said. Work there will be from east of Rand Road to Illinois Highway 83.
This spring, Arlington Heights officials will discuss possible solutions for what Schoeffmann called “areas of congestion” in the village.
“One [thing] we need to address is the intersections of Rand, Palatine and Arlington Heights Roads; Northwest Highway, Davis and Arthur Roads; and along Dundee and Lake-Cook Roads and the Illinois Route 53 extension north,” Schoeffmann said.
Another significant transportation issue is the extension of Illinois 53 through Lake County, village officials say.
“The village has gone on record for several years in support of the extension of Route 53 because we believe that it will help ease some of the traffic concerns we have on Arlington Heights Road,” said William Enright, deputy director of planning and community development for the village.
“It’s also a significant issue for us because we have six different on-off ramps for Route 53.”
On the public transit front, Schoeffmann said, the village will continue to work with Metra to implement improvements at the Arlington Park station.
“We’re now working on the plans,” he said, which include reconstructing the parking lot, new traffic signals and new platforms.
The village hopes the improvements can be completed this year.
“That station is a very popular commuter facility, mainly for the people who live north and west of that location,” he said. “It’s also a popular station for those who reverse commute for the [racetrack] and for people who work in the nearby U.S. postal facility.”
Ridership at the new downtown station remains strong, Enright said.
“The station is one of the busiest stations in the Metra system and will continue to be so, he said.”
Village officials also are looking into bolstering Pace bus service in Arlington Heights.
“The problem is that ridership levels have never been significant enough for them to warrant additional lines,” Enright said. “We’re trying to work with Pace and promote bus service through the village.”
One idea is to create a route south along Arlington Heights Road between the downtown Metra train station and a Pace park-and-ride facility in Elk Grove Village. Two buses would make a total of seven round trips each day.
“We have a large number of businesses along that route as well as office parks and a Radisson Hotel,” said Kristine Stabler, chairman of the Arlington Heights Economic Alliance. “Every business is looking for employees, and transportation is always an issue.
“What could happen with this route is that employees could come in on the Metra line and then take the bus line to their jobs instead of driving. That’s what happens on the north route as far as Dundee Road.”
To determine the need for a southbound Pace line, alliance officials early this year began a survey of the 3,800 business owners in Arlington Heights.
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For more information on the resurfacing projects, call the Illinois Department of Transportation hot line at 800-452-4368.
