The state’s schedule for major repairs on one of the village’s busiest streets — and a new version of traffic signals for left turns on state highways — will test local motorists’ patience and skills possibly into next spring.
Just as Jackson Street jams with students heading to their first classes at Morton Community High School and trucks haul harvest loads to the Nestlé-Libby pumpkin cannery, lanes will close on Jackson for the work funded by the Illinois Department of Transportation.
The repairs and repavement of Jackson, which carries U.S. Highway 150, will begin late this month.
“There’s a chance they may not get it done before winter,” village Public Works Director Bob Wraight said Monday.
Depending on weather delays, “It’s possible they won’t finish until next spring,” when warmer temperatures would allow pavement to be laid, Wraight told the Morton Village Board.
“There will be a lot of orange barrels” narrowing traffic flow from two and three lanes in each direction to one, Wraight said before delivering his report on the project to the board. But the main east-west traffic artery, which according to state records carries about 8,000 vehicles per day, will never be closed in either direction, he said.
The work, which United Contractors Midwest will perform under a contract exceeding $2.5 million, also will welcome crowds traveling to the Morton Pumpkin Fest.
The timing of the state’s project prompted Mayor Norm Durflinger to quip, “They do recognize the World’s Fair is coming.”
With the project also will come the first on a state-controlled highway in Morton of new traffic control signals that will include flashing yellow arrows for left turns in cross traffic, in addition to the solid red, yellow and green arrows.
The flashing yellow arrow will allow a “permissive” left turn in which oncoming traffic will have the right-of-way, Wraight said. IDOT installed the first such sign in its District 4 last week on North Knoxville Avenue in Peoria, he said.
“I suspect there will be a learning curve” as drivers get accustomed to the new signal that will soon spread throughout District 4, Wraight said. Seven other states, however, now feature the flashing yellow turn option, “and (drivers) picked up on it pretty quick.”
While the state-funded work on Jackson progresses, the city will use the opportunity offered by its required traffic controls to repair several sewer lines and sidewalks along the street. The latter work, however, will come at a steeper price than first expected.
Wraight said the cost has risen $30,000 from its original $60,000 estimate made earlier this year. Still, “This is our chance to get it done,” he said. “We’ll figure out how to get the extra money.”
