New Turn Lanes to be Constructed at Hart Road, Route 14

Traffic headaches associated with the Hart Road and Route 14 intersection in Barrington will soon be alleviated, thanks to tentative approval of a new intersection design study.

Once final approval is submitted to the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT), the project will create dual left turns from northwest-bound Route 14 onto Hart Road, and dual left turn lanes from north-bound Hart Road onto Route 14. 

“When school lets out or sporting events let out, there’s a tremendous amount of traffic leading out to Route 14,” Greg Summers, Barrington’s Director of Engineering and Building said. “Back-ups can be as long as 15 minutes.”

The project has been in the works for many years, and needed approval from Union Pacific, IDOT, Lake County Division of Transportation and the village of Barrington before moving forward. Last week, Union Pacific signed off on the plan.

A new bike path from the Field of Dreams across Route 14 down to Cumnor Avenue will also be created as part of the project.

“Later the Hart Road bike path would connect to a path around the high school along Hart Road and Main Street (a pending ITEP grant application) and the segment along Route 14 would become part of the NWMC Northwest Highway trail corridor (as will the underpass bike path – these things are all planned to link together),” an email from Summers read.

The village is in the process of submitting the final approval packet for the project to Lake County, who will take over Phase II of the project: Creating construction and engineering documents.

The Lake County Division of Transportation estimates construction will begin in 2015.