What Wheaton drivers should know about Gary Avenue road work

In some places, Gary Avenue has the feel of a country road, with an expanse of marsh on one side and Wheaton’s Northside Park on the other.

A tavern has hugged the side of the two-lane road since around the repeal of Prohibition.

That bucolic section of Gary Avenue is set to become more pedestrian and bike-friendly as part of an estimated $4.2 million project largely funded by federal dollars.

The Illinois Department of Transportation has opened bids and the work tentatively is expected to start this summer. The construction area will run from about Harrison Avenue to just shy of Jewell Road, a connector route between Wheaton’s downtown and neighboring Winfield and Carol Stream.

The city owns that part of Gary Avenue and it’s contributing 30% of the total project cost, said Sarang Lagvankar, Wheaton’s senior project engineer.

Plans call for a reconstruction of the roadway with curbs and gutters. The intersection at Prairie Avenue – the road leading to the Wheaton Sport Center – will get a traffic signal. Crews also will install a multiuse path along the east side of Gary Avenue, meaning it will be wide enough to accommodate pedestrian as well as bike traffic.

“It will help them try to access facilities like the Sport Center or even continue northward to maybe school or whatever they need to do, but it just gives them a safer alternative than what’s currently there,” Lagvankar said.

While details are still being hammered out, drivers will need to use an alternate route. The contractor, however, will accommodate patrons of the health club and Rosie O’Reilly’s, the bar formerly known as The Gables.

“We haven’t gotten to that level yet as far as construction phasing, but the contractor recognizes he must maintain access into those facilities,” Lagvankar said.

Along with the traffic signal installation, a turn lane will be added for vehicles headed to Prairie Avenue, the health club and a subdivision of townhouses.

High traffic volumes on Gary Avenue make it difficult for drivers stopped on Prairie to find “adequate gaps” to turn onto the north-south road, according to a June 2021 city presentation on the project. It will be converted to a signalized intersection to provide dedicated time for drivers to exit Prairie and make their turns.

DuPage County forest preserve commissioners, meanwhile, have approved permanent easements and temporary easement agreements with the city and Wheaton Park District. A stormwater compensatory storage area and grading work are necessary on the east side of Gary Avenue within Lincoln Marsh, said Kevin Stough, the district’s land preservation manager.

Most of Lincoln Marsh is jointly owned by the forest preserve and park districts, with a few small areas solely owned by either entity. The proposed path will remain in the Gary Avenue right of way.

The bulk of the work should hopefully wrap up by November, Lagvankar said, and any touch-up work such as landscaping should be done the following spring.

The goal is to have the road open by the end of the construction season, he said.

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