Route 30 Widening Project to Get Rolling This Year

It’s been in the works for almost 20 years. But according to state officials, the widening of Route 30, between Briarcliff Road and Route 34, may very well begin by spring of next year.

The Illinois Department of Transportation began studying that section of Route 30 in 1992, and design approval was granted in 1996. The idea was to deal with traffic backup issues along a 3.9-mile stretch of road, from Route 31 to Goodwin Drive, just west of Route 34.

The project was broken into three parts. The first of those, replacing the Route 30 bridges over the Fox River, was completed in the late 1990s. But the other two components—completing the interchange at Route 31 and widening that stretch of Route 30—stalled, while the state struggled to pay for them.

But according to Craig Bauer, project engineer with IDOT, both of those are in the state’s plans for the next six years, and could begin as early as spring 2012.

Bauer and Project Manager Long Tran trekked out to Wednesday night and gave details on the state’s plan. Village officials and trustees listened intently, as did about half a dozen owners of homes along Route 30.

The section of Route 30 between Briarcliff and Goodwin will be expanded to a five-lane cross-section, which means two lanes of traffic in either direction and a fifth lane in the center, with an 18-foot-wide concrete median and left-turn bays.

The project will also include replacing the bridge over Waubansee Creek and adding sidewalks between Fifth Street and Goodwin Drive.

While the state will pay for most of the work, and cost estimates have not been released, the village of Montgomery will be responsible for some of the expenses. Everything north of Route 30 along that stretch is within the village, everything south of it is unincorporated Oswego Township.

Hence, the village will pay for maintaining the landscaping in the median, should the village agree to landscaping there, and for 20 percent of the cost of sidewalks along the northern portion. Village funds will also go to traffic signal upgrades at Fifth Street and Douglas Avenue, lighting along the road, and, if the board chooses, to optional upgrades to a 16-foot noise wall that will block the sound of traffic.

It was that noise wall that sparked most of Wednesday night’s discussion. The wall was included in the plans because the Village Board supported it in the 1990s, Bauer said, and should the board want to reconsider, they can. But the state will not build only portions of the wall, which is slated to stretch from Briarcliff to just west of Douglas Road.

“We don’t have to build the wall,” Bauer said. “But it’s the whole wall or nothing.”

Trustee Bill Keck said Montgomery “wants it for sure,” and asked how village officials might help persuade Oswego Township to pay for the 14-foot wall on the south side. Bauer said he would be speaking to township officials about the Route 30 plans soon.

Village President Marilyn Michelini agreed with Keck.

“Lots of residents have indicated to me the need for a noise wall,” she said.

Bauer and Tran said Route 30 and the roads that feed into it would remain open during construction. IDOT will widen and rebuild two lanes at a time, keeping the other two open and constructing temporary lanes for additional traffic.

Bauer said the state could have preliminary plans for the project finished in “two to three weeks,” and provided funding remains strong, the plan would move ahead from there. Tran said plans for the Route 31 interchange would proceed at the same pace, and more information on that project would be forthcoming.

Additionally, Tran said, the state is currently studying widening Route 30 west of Route 31, out to Route 47. But Bauer said that doesn’t mean shovels will hit earth anytime soon.

“These things take time,” he said. “This (widening project) started in the early ‘90s, and we’re just now getting here.”