Route 21 Widening Moves Forward with Sale of Township Land

Libertyville Township Board of Trustees recently approved the sale of four parcels of land near Casey Road and Milwaukee Avenue to the Illinois Department of Transportation for a total of $217,000.

The sale allows IDOT to move forward with widening Milwaukee Avenue. The $32 million road-widening project is expected to start in fall and will widen 2.2 miles of Milwaukee Avenue from Route 137 to south of Route 120.

The township board approved the sale pending removal of the requirement that the Township Road District maintain the proposed sidewalks.

“IDOT had requested that the road district assume responsibility for ongoing maintenance of the roads and of the sidewalks being installed on Route 21,” Supervisor Kathleen O’Connor said during last week’s board meeting. “The Road District declined acceptance, primarily because [they] have such a tight budget and the ongoing maintenance is really a huge cost and we couldn’t absorb that.”

The proposed plans include sidewalks all the way from Route 137 to downtown Libertyville.

The village recently approved the sale of a sliver of land in front of Adler School. 1740 N. Milwaukee Ave., for $2,500.

At a recent Streets Committee meeting, Public Works Director John Heinz said IDOT has worked to address concerns around clearing the road for emergency vehicles during the project’s construction.

“With a reduction of five lanes down to three, it’s going to be hard to clear the intersection as quickly as the [Fire Department] would like, but that’s the nature of construction,” Heinz said. “[IDOT representative] felt that when emergency vehicles pull out and hit the Opticom, the line of sight is perfect for the road right of way. It would clear everyone going northbound, and east and west bound at that intersection stop, and he feels very confident that the construction wouldn’t cause any problems at all.”