75th Street Construction to Begin in March 2012

The first Darien phase of DuPage County’s 75^th Street widening project is set to begin in March, county transportation engineer Christopher Snyder said Monday during the meeting. 

Construction will begin at Interstate 355 and move east toward Lyman Avenue, he said. The project is set to conclude in fall 2012. Changes include widening 75^th Street for motor vehicle traffic and adding a bike lane. 

The design of the project has been completed and is currently in the bidding process, Snyder said. It’s slated to cost about $11.5 million in county and federal funds. 

Prior to construction, the county will hold a public meeting for Darien residents to discuss what to expect. The meeting is yet to be scheduled. 

The project includes improvements to the intersection of 75^th Street and Lemont Road, which Synder said the county identified as one of three critical junctions in Darien. The other two are 75^th and Cass Avenue and 75^th and Plainfield Road.

Because of the proximity of Cass Avenue to Plainfield Road, Snyder said the county determined that it could not complete a project at one of the two intersections without addressing both.

That phase of the project has undergone several iterations and has been scaled back from the initial plans, he said.

County Board member John Curran said construction on that phase of the project is still a ways off. 

“We see under no scenario would construction begin before 2014,” he said.

The next step will be to schedule a public meeting with Darien residents in mid-November to discuss the project.

After the meeting, Curran said county staff will initiate the design process.

That phase of the project is anticipated to cost $15.6 million, he said. The county has applied for two grants to help fund the project, which he said it expects to find out about in December. 

Revised plans for the Cass and Plainfield projects are available for review at .