Slow going on Route 30 construction

Contractors for the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) are running about two months behind schedule on two major highway reconstruction projects in Montgomery.

Mike Pubentz, the village's director of public works, said he recently met with IDOT officials and was told that contractors now rebuilding and widening U.S. Route 30 between Briarcliff Road and Goodwin Drive are not currently expected to finish the project until late fall, possibly by the Thanksgiving holiday.

Pubentz said contractors were originally scheduled to complete the project by the end of August.

Nevertheless, he said contractors are continuing to work on the project and expect to install the highway's new eastbound lanes next month.

Pubentz said contractors will also start installation of a concrete sound barrier wall along the south side of the highway extending from Briarcliff Road east to Douglas Road.

The wall will be similar to the sound barrier wall contractors put up late last year on the north side of the highway adjoining the backyards of several homes in the village's Seasons Ridge Subdivision.

Contractors started work last year on the Route 30 project. When completed, the former two-lane highway will have four lanes of traffic along with protected turn lanes at intersections and a landscaped center median.

As part of the project, a trail for pedestrians will be constructed along the north side of the highway from Douglas Road east to Goodwin Drive. The trail will provide access for pedestrians and cyclists to the Oswego Public Library District's branch library near Goodwin Drive and the Ogden Hill shopping center just east of Goodwin Drive.

Contractors for IDOT are also proceeding with the reconstruction of the Ill. Route 31 and Route 30 interchange.

"They are also running about eight weeks behind," Pubentz said of the contractors, adding, "(But) they believe that the project will be done in 2014, a little bit after October, possibly in December depending upon how the work goes."

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Slow going on Route 30 construction