Woodfire Closing Prompts Patch Series

Editor’s Note—With a number of Deerfield businesses closing in the vicinity of Lake Cook and Waukegan Roads, some construction underway and more coming next year, Patch is starting a series today about the effect of road construction on business. 

Today we will focus on roadwork projects in general, how they are scheduled and what business owners, property owners and municipalities can do to minimize the effect. We will also write about how local businesses are coping.

Traversing construction projects has become as commonplace for Deerfield and Northbrook residents as driving on the villages' roads.

With roadwork scheduled to, drivers will unintentionally navigate away from some local businesses which rely on customer traffic for survival.

A year ago, there was ongoing construction on every major east-west roadway in the area from Dempster Street in Morton Grove on the south to Highway 60 in Lake Forest to the north. Some of the work was under the direction of the Illinois Department of Transportation, some was overseen by the Cook County Highway Department and still others were municipal projects.

Some of the time, like when Lake Cook Road and the Edens Spur were scheduled for major rehabilitation, agencies try to coordinate their efforts to minimize the effect on people and business, according to Superintendent John Yonan of the Cook County Highway Department.

“We have a clear understanding of when things are scheduled,” Yonan said. “Our project (Lake Cook Road between Wilmot and Waukegan Roads) was put on hold until the (Edens) Spur was done and we jumped in after that.”

During that span some businesses experienced a . One of the March 29.

Sometimes nearby projects occur simultaneously because of funding requirements. “We have to do it when the funds are available,” Yonan said. “You can’t have a forward balance ledger.”

Yonan is willing to work with people to find the best way to ease any pain the work might inflict. “We contact the municipalities and the property owners, but we’re willing to meet with any of these other folks (like business owners) to see what we can do.”

After the effects on business last year, Yonan went out of his way to make sure the inconvenience would be minimal this summer and the completion of the Lake Cook Road project from Deerlake to Waukegan Road would be done by Thanksgiving, 2013.

“We’ll bid it this fall and start work as early as we can (in 2013),” Yonan said. “We’ll be done by Thanksgiving so there won’t be any work in December. We don’t want to hurt the shopping center (Northbrook Court) and the other businesses.”

Deerfield Mayor Harriet Rosenthal and Village Manager Kent Street were two of the people who went to Yonan and others. Their efforts were instrumental getting the breather this summer, according to Village Trustee Barbara Struthers.

As hard as the Cook County Highway Department tried to complete all work on Lake Cook Road last summer, Yonan’s agency could not deal with the unforeseen.

“We planned to complete everything from Wilmot to Waukegan (Roads) last summer, but the bridgework on Pfingsten Road (another project) couldn’t wait,” Yonan said. The rest of the work on Lake Cook Road had to be delayed because the Pfingsten project could have been a safety hazard.