A dozen big dump trucks lined up along either side of Dundee Road Monday, waiting to be filled with ground-up asphalt. Some of the trucks intermittently blocked the entrances to the shopping center where Greg Johnson’s embroidery shop is, but he was impressed nevertheless.
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He’s been watching the $4.7 million job as it proceeds down State Route 68, between Route 41 and Portwine Road.
“They grind it off and lay down the asphalt in the same day,” he said Monday. “They can’t do much better than that.”
The project is on schedule for completion by mid-September, IDOT spokeswoman Gianna Urgo said Tuesday.
If the project does stall, “We’ve got some leeway until early to mid-November, when the asphalt plants close” for the winter, said Northbrook Village President Sandy Frum.
Johnson said nobody had complained to say they couldn’t access his EmbroidMe store, at 2845 Dundee Road, but said it’ll be better when the project is complete and that the work was indeed necessary.
Monday, as the Peter Baker & Sons crew worked in one lane on the state highway, the other three remained open.
“It’s causing delays as expected,” Northbrook Public Works director Kelly Hamill said of the Illinois Department of Transportation project. “But Peter Baker is a good contractor. They do the best they can do, because any time they don’t spend on this job is time they can spend on another.”
The Dundee Road project was on the list of IDOT jobs that would have been suspended if the General Assembly had not cobbled together a state spending plan at the end of June, Frum said. It’s out of danger now, she said, as all projects through the end of the calendar year have been funded.
Frum said the Dundee Road project had its moments of tough traffic, especially last spring, when the Metra railroad crossing at Fair Lane was being repaired, too. But she said the job has run much better than Cook County Highway Department’s Techny Road project of 2006, which actually ended in 2007, months after it was scheduled to be completed. Some business owners complained bitterly then.
“This is IDOT, and not Cook County,” Frum said Monday. “They seem to be phasing it pretty well.”
On Monday, a new Dunkin’ Donuts shop opened for the first time on the southeast corner of Dundee and Pfingsten roads, less than half a block to the east of Johnson’s store. Manager James Rogers said people had no problem getting into the doughnut shop, despite a lot of slowing down as drivers approached the construction zone.
“It was actually been good for business,” Rogers said. “Northbrook didn’t let us put up banners, but people sitting in traffic were able to see us: ‘Hey, they’re open.'”
Some time before the project is scheduled to end in September, drivers may get an even better look at his shop. Widening of Dundee’s intersections of both Pfingsten and Landwehr are to come after the main repaving, according to officials.
Twitter: @IrvLeavitt