Politics & Government

Does the Mild Winter Mean Rt. 30 Construction Will Start Soon?

The favorable weather conditions this season have residents asking Frankfort officials when the massive road-widening project will be up and running again.

Unseasonably warm temperatures and a lack of snow. Two elements that can be welcome signs for road construction.

But the favorable weather conditions aren't a guarantee that construction will resume early on the U.S. Route 30 widening project.

"Unfortunately, when they (the Illinois Department of Transportation) plan to do a project, they usually release the crews during the winter and return at a certain date," said Assistant Village Administrator Rob Piscia at Monday's meeting. "No one would've anticipated we would have this type of weather, and therefore you've seen kind of a lag in why construction hasn't picked up.

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"We're hoping that within the next few weeks, crews will return, and I'm sure the bad weather will return with them," Piscia jokingly added. "Hopefully we'll see something happening here again in the next couple weeks."

Find out what's happening in Frankfortwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The $72.7 million project to widen an 8.5-mile stretch that runs from Harlem Avenue in Frankfort to William Street in New Lenox began last summer, and Piscia said, officially, construction is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2012. However, unofficial word is that the timeline for completion is more along the lines of the middle of 2013.


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