Story posted Friday, June 19, 2009
Summer Brings Roadwork Season
Lee St. Among Ten Miles Of Des Plaines Roads To Be Repaired
Federal stimulus money will help repair local roadways but will also give you plenty of traffic headaches this summer. Here, traffic is down to one lane along Lee St. as crews prepare to apply a new layer of asphalt on Monday, June 15. (Tom Wessell/The Journal)
Traffic will be tied up on 10 miles of several major roadways in Des Plaines this summer due to the availability of millions of dollars in federal stimulus money.
Motorists on a large section of Lee Street in the downtown area have already experienced traffic ties-ups as crews apply a new layer of asphalt. Similar congestion will occur on large portions of Graceland Avenue, Rand Road, Wolf Road and Jefferson Street behind city hall.
Work began this week on Lee Street from Walnut Avenue on the south to Rand Road on the north near the original McDonald's building. Northbound vehicular traffic was clogged as crews removed the top layer of roadway and replaced it with a new layer of asphalt. Work includes some curb and gutter replacement forcing, in many cases, the closing of lanes.
Once work on that part of Lee Street is finished, crews will move over to Graceland Avenue where the same kind of work will be conducted. The project will begin on Jefferson Street on the north to Graceland Avenue, and south on Graceland to Walnut, which is across form Giuseppe's La Cantina restaurant. Eventually this year, resurfacing will continue south on Lee Street from Walnut to Prospect Avenue, which is south of the Lee/Mannheim Road S-curve.
Other roadwork includes:
* Resurfacing of Wolf Road from the Cumberland Circle on the north to Touhy Avenue on the south encompassing a total of 2.81 miles at a cost of $2,050,000, Completion is expected sometime in October.
* Resurfacing of Rand Road form Third Avenue on the northwest to past Dempster Street on the southeast and into Park Ridge. This 2.3-mile project has a pricetag of $1,7897,000 and a completion date of sometime in September.
The other road improvements are scheduled for completion in August.
Speak Out!
Comments are edited first by Journal staff before running in print and appearing online.