We’re a few days away from what many motorists dread: The start of the summer road construction season in northeast Illinois. Unless you’re in the road-building business, being stuck in road work is a traffic hassle.
For the rest of us, the construction kickoff means delay upon delay as streets, avenues and roads are awash with heavy equipment and construction workers laboring with jackhammers, picks and shovels. And slow/stop/caution signs.
Stuck in traffic bottlenecks, our time being impinged upon, we take little consolation in the fact that the construction projects will eventually mean easier trips once the work is completed. Changing traffic patterns, increasing numbers of vehicles on our byways and the seasonal freeze-thaw cycle of our Midwest weather require highway improvements, resurfacing and overall work on infrastructure.
If annual road construction didn’t happen, we’d be complaining about the lack of progress and our substandard roads. That’s just the type of folks we’ve become while steaming about wasting time sitting in traffic gridlock.
Public works departments across Lake County are prepping for their summer projects as we move into prime construction season. Such as in Gurnee, where one of the major jobs, resurfacing Fuller Road from Route 132 to Stearns School Road, is slated to begin next month. Completion is expected in November.
The Lake County Division of Transportation announced earlier this month a mammoth $98 million construction program focused on maintaining and updating county roads and bridges. Some 30 transportation projects across the county will be under construction this season, LakeDOT said.
Those include two projects held over from last year — interminable work at the Hunt Club Road and Washington Street intersection in Gurnee, along with the Arlington Heights Road at Lake-Cook Road reconstruction job in Buffalo Grove. Included in the plans are LakeDOT’s continued drive to turn county intersections into roundabouts.
Three of those are planned: A single-lane roundabout at Russell Road and Kenosha Avenue and an additional single-lane roundabout at Russell Road and Lewis Avenue, both west of Zion; while construction of a single-lane roundabout at the intersection of Deep Lake Road and Depot Street near Antioch is scheduled for this summer.
Large stretches of road resurfacing are scheduled for Cedar Lake Road from Hart Road to Monaville Road, and Townline Road to Route 60 in the Round Lake area; Fairfield Road to Nippersink Road to Route 60, west of the Round Lake area; and Old McHenry Road from Cuba Road to Quentin Road in the Hawthorn Woods area.
In eastern Lake County, plans call for resurfacing Martin Luther King Jr. Drive from Green Bay Road to Commonwealth Avenue in North Chicago, and Russell Road from Kilbourne Road to Green Bay Road. Bridge work plans include Dilleys Road at Mill Creek in Wadsworth; Pulaski Drive at Route 41 in Waukegan; and Russell Road at the Des Plaines River in Russell.
Across the county, roadwork congestion is forecast and motorists should prepare and plan accordingly for the increased driving times. Not that we’re unaccustomed to waiting in traffic gridlock.
We have the worst vehicle congestion in the nation. That’s according to data from the annual Global Traffic Scorecard.
Usually in the top 10, the Chicago region overtook New York City last year for the unheralded title. The Big Apple, now listed as No. 4, has cut down on its congestion by implementing a vehicle surcharge in the central city.
Worldwide, we’re No. 2 just behind Istanbul, Turkey, and one spot ahead of Mexico City. According to the report, which crunched numbers from 36 U.S. and global cities, Chicago-area drivers last year saw a 10% increase in the average time sitting in traffic.
The study says we squandered 112 hours stuck in our vehicles during rush hours and other congestion. That amounts, the report’s authors maintain, to $2,063 of lost time for the average driver.
Not included is the price of fuel while idling in line, along with the environmental impact of vehicle pollution. Congestion also has consequences for semi-trucks loaded with freight.
The percentage of highway commuters, mainly those from the suburbs heading to the core city, has increased to pre-COVID-19 pandemic numbers logged in 2019. The study also notes public transit commuter numbers are down 22% in the region.
Other U.S. cities making the list include Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Boston. Our region, according to the study, also has some of the worst congestion on expressways and tollways.
There are a few options — Metra trains and Pace buses — in Lake County to avoid traffic congestion. Something to consider while biding one’s time waiting for a flag person to let vehicles through construction zones.
While moving through those zones, be wary of the workers. They’re just doing their jobs.
Charles Selle is a former News-Sun reporter, political editor and editor. sellenews@gmail.com. X @sellenews.
