The calm before the storm

November 13th, 2007 at 04:33pm Thomas V. Bona

According to the old joke, there are only two seasons in Illinois - winter and construction. Illinois Tollway officials repeated that joke to me today, and noted that they’re trying to make the construction season longer and longer. You may notice that crews are out later than they’ve been.

Local work should wrap up by Thanksgiving, when crews will remove the barrels on the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway between Newburg and Rockton roads. The highway will revert back to its normal setup - two lanes in each direction, no driving on the shoulder.

But in the spring, the tollway is going to be particularly busy. Besides the widening project between Newburg and Rockton roads - which will send traffic onto the shoulders and include some closures - crews will also start rebuilding the Cherry Valley interchange (bye bye toll plaza!). Both projects will take two years and will be a testament to the idea of “no pain, no gain.”

Read more about upcoming projects at BusinessRockford.com on Nov. 25. Also, we’ll have a story about Thanksgiving traffic and gas price projections on Nov. 20.

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