Most Half Day Road Work To Be Done This Month

Half Day Road will have two lanes of traffic running in each direction by the end of August as the long-term project winds down to a completion of landscaping after that, according to Illinois Department of Transportation consultant Gordon Snyder.

The work currently underway on Waukegan Road where it intersects Half Day will be mostly done except for landscaping at the same time. The Route 22 project runs from just west of Ridge Road in Highland Park to Highway 94.

“I anticipate the roadwork being done by the end of the month,” Snyder said. “Two lanes will be open in each direction.”

The two remaining elements of the project will be a truss spanning the intersection of Half Day and Waukegan roads holding the traffic signals. “The truss is still out of state being modified,” Snyder said. “I don’t have a timetable on that.”

When all work including the truss is complete, there will be a pair of left turn lanes in all four directions at the crossing. “We can’t allow both left turn lanes until we have the truss,” Snyder said.

Bannockburn Police Chief Ron Price is looking forward to the reduced congestion once the project is complete and the double left turn lanes are in effect.

“We’re looking forward to all the barrels being gone,” Price said. “Some people get impatient and use the median to pass, which they shouldn’t do. This will alleviate the congestion.”

The other element of the project that cannot be finished until spring is landscaping because of the time certain trees must be planted.

“There will be some lane closures for landscaping but it won’t be all the time,” Snyder said. There will be none during the winter months when trees, shrubs and grass are not planted.

Some of the trees being planted, according to the contract, must be put in the ground in the fall and others in the spring, according to Snyder.

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