In the News

Pioneer Press Deerfield Review, May 12, 2009

The intersection of Waukegan and Lake Cook roads -- infamous on the North Shore for its craterlike potholes -- will receive emergency repairs this summer.

The announcement came Friday from state Sen. Susan Garrett, D-29th, of Lake Forest, shortly after the Illinois Department of Transportation agreed to take on the intersection work.

"This project is long overdue and will be paid for through a 'mini-stimulus' program voted on by the state legislature in April," Garrett stated in a press release. "Our priority is to ensure that the most highly-traveled roads are repaired and resurfaced so that drivers are not having to replace tires and endanger their lives."

The long-anticipated repairs should take place during a summer that will see plenty of orange cones and lane closures on Waukegan Road. One of the biggest projects will be resurfacing Waukegan Road from Deerfield High School south to Central Avenue, near the fire station. Construction will continue along Waukegan Road to the north and south, including from Half Day Road in Bannockburn to Atkinson Road in Lake Bluff, as well as from the Edens Spur all the way down through Northbrook to Willow Road.

IDOT is just letting out bids for those projects now, so it is difficult to predict exactly when each project will start and finish.

Village Manager Kent Street has made suggestions for the best times to stage work.

"Our hope is to get a lot of that work done before the school year and after the Fourth of July," he said.

IDOT area programmer Brian Carlson explained the state initially did not plan to repair the intersection because the Cook County Highway Department is now starting work on Lake Cook Road, and it planned to do the intersection work by next year.

Cook County will still do intersection improvements as scheduled in 2010, but in the meantime, Deerfield would have been responsible for any emergency patching this year.

"But it's getting to be a situation beyond what may be handled by the village of Deerfield," Carlson said. "We would provide more than just your typical pothole patch."