Fairfield and Gilmer Open

Here is a press release from Lake County on this wonderful news! I will be curious to see if the opening will relieve the backups into 176. Logic says yes, but when is a commute logical!

The Lake County Division of Transportation will open the remaining leg of the new Fairfield and Gilmer Road interchange, near the Village of Wauconda, to all traffic beginning at 6:00 A.M. on Saturday, September 15. The intersection has been completely closed to traffic since May in order to permit the County's contractor to reconstruct this intersection as an interchange with Gilmer Road elevated over Fairfield Road. Construction of this $9.2 million improvement was started in 2006. It is the first grade-separated interchange to be constructed on the County Highway system.

Fairfield Road, the west leg of Gilmer Road and the connecting ramp were opened to traffic on August 15th. The east leg of Gilmer Road and the bridge on Gilmer Road are now complete and the entire project will open to traffic as scheduled on Saturday.

This interchange improvement replaces the previous heavily congested four-way stop sign intersection with a grade-separated design. Beginning Saturday, the improvement will carry traffic along Gilmer Road on an overpass crossing Fairfield Road. Traffic passing through the intersection on either Gilmer or Fairfield Road will flow freely without having to slow or stop as would be necessary with a conventional traffic signal. A connecting ramp has been constructed between the north leg of Fairfield Road and the west leg of Gilmer Road to allow traffic to travel between Gilmer Road and Fairfield Road.

"I wish to thank motorists for their patience during this construction effort," said Marty Buehler, Director of Transportation for Lake County. "This is a significant improvement for highway users in southwest Lake County and I know that everyone involved with this project has worked very hard to open it to traffic on-time."

In addition to the improvements to the Gilmer and Fairfield Road interchange, Lake County has installed traffic signals at the intersection of Fairfield Road and Bonner Road. This traffic signal replaced the multi-way stop signs which were installed to facilitate traffic movements during the Fairfield Road closure detour. Information concerning this project can be found on the Lake County Division of Transportation website at www.co.lake.il.us/dot.