Major Improvements Planned For Washington Street

The $20 million grade separation project of the railroad tracks on Washington Street, in between Hainesville Road and Lake Street, is slated to begin in 2013. The Lake County Division of Transportation (LCDOT) is managing the project, and presented details about the project this month to people who lived along Washington Street or in Haryan Farms subdivision.

"All these cars are on the road and they need to travel safely," said  Betty Lekman as she looked over the maps. "The road backs up morning and night. This would be great."

The LCDOT has plans to widen Washington Street into a five-lane road, so that there are two lanes in each direction plus a turn lane.

"This is a heavily traveled corridor that is now in need of improvements," noted the LCDOT  officials in a presentation about the project. They cited accident reports that showed 243 accidents along the 1.5-mile stretch of road between Hainesville Road and Lake Street.

"These are mainly rear-end accidents due to stop and go traffic on the road," LCDOT officials said. There are currently between 14,000 and 16,000 cars per day on Washington Street, according to LCDOT and those numbers are only expected to grow..

The existing bike path on the south side of the road would be replaced and a new sidewalk added on the north side of the road. The $14 million in road expansion along the 1.5 mile stretch of Washington Street, however, will depend on funding.

"It is really needed," said resident David Quinn, who attended a LCDOT public hearing about the project along with his wife, Kate.  "The general impression I hear from my neighbors is that people want this. But some neighbors will be impacted by it, and that is hard."

Gail Leider was one resident who was not in favor of the plans.

"I hate it," she said. "I've lived here for 23 years. We live on the north side of Washington Street. When I moved in, there were only deer across the street, not all the houses of Haryan Farms."

She did agree that having the railroad elevated to not bog down traffic at the crossing would be helpful to keep traffic moving.

Dan Anderson, who lives on the north side of Washington Street in the white-fenced 100-year-old Spanish home, was doubtful of the impact of the project.

"I don't see how this is going to do anything," Anderson said. "If they are going to do this, they should go the whole way to Cedar Lake Road (to the west) and to I-94 (to the east)."

He added that the railroad crossing improvements should make things better.

"But they should do that first and then see how much it helps with traffic," he said. "I think, overall, the whole plan is a lot like milking mice - it is lots of work with little results."

The LCDOT study is expected to be completed this summer. Then, they move into contract preparation and acquiring the right-of-ways needed for the project from 2011 to 2013. In 2013, work would begin on the improvements to the railroad crossing.

"We believe that these road improvements are needed, especially with the growth in population in this area," said Paula Trigg, director of planning for the LCDOT.