The Lake County construction project to widen Quentin Road from two to four lanes is currently underway at the intersection of Quentin and Rand roads.
The goal of the project is to widen and redo Quentin Road from Rue Royale Road to Boscome Drive, dividing the construction into two phases.
Phase one, which is currently underway, starts at Quentin Road from Rand Road and ends at White Pine Road. Phase two, which is planned to start in 2013-2014, will go from White Pine Road until Route 22. In addition to the new traffic lanes, the project will also include adding a new bike path and sidewalk that will go from Harrings Park until the Cuba Marsh, according to Michael Talbett, Kildeer Village Administrator.
“When the project was first brought up around four years ago, the number of cars on Quentin Road was approximately 30 percent above its capacity,” Talbett said. “In the time that has past, the problem has only gotten worse. The project is not necessarily about reducing traffic but about accommodating the amount of cars the road can support.”
Lake County will pay $17.8 million dollars for the construction project, Civil Tech Inc’s website said. The length of time that Quentin Road will be under construction is still unknown. Traffic will still flow through Quentin Road during construction, but travelers should expect delays.
“The construction will be a dramatic change but it is important in two respects. One, the accessibility of the road and two, the look of Quentin Road will improve dramatically. It will be completely different from the current road,” Talbett said.
Because of the construction, many businesses around the intersection have had to make accommodations. Bacchus Nibbles, a restaurant located on the southwest corner of Quentin Road and Rand Road is relocating to Rand Road and Illinois Route 22, near Dominick’s grocery store, on September 22 due to the construction.
“I would say that 95 percent of my customers are happy for me to move. They believe that the construction would have made my business go down anyway,” Matt Hawe, owner of Bacchus Nibbles, said.
This construction project also includes extensive wetlands, flood plains, hydraulic and drainage studies, as well as air quality and highway noise analyses. The highway noise analysis results showed that many people living in close proximity to Quentin Road have a high noise level. This means that in addition to the new lanes for the road, a noise wall must also be built for the surrounding neighborhoods. A noise wall or barrier is an exterior structure built to protect sensitive land from noise pollution.
“The construction will probably be beneficial in the long run but mostly it will be a hassle for the duration of the construction,” Paige Rohrback, sophomore, said. “I would rather Quentin Road stay the way it is then have construction there for a long period of time.”