Expect another 6 weeks of local roadwork, officials say

STERLING – For those who have found driving the city’s busiest roads a little more difficult over the past couple of weeks, hang in there. There’s an end in sight.

The Lynn Boulevard and Locust Street repairs are scheduled to be completed Aug. 15, at a combined cost to the city of $1.1 million. The Illinois Department of Transportation is paying an additional $580,000 for the Locust Street project.

Both will improve storm drainage and result in newly paved road surfaces.

The Lynn Boulevard project, which covers the half-mile stretch between 16th Avenue and Freeport Road, also will remove the barrier median to accommodate future development.

Although traffic patterns remain troublesome, all businesses in the downtown area are accessible by car, city officials said. Just follow signs marked “access to local business” around construction areas.

Road projects planned this summer in Sterling

STERLING – City workers will install curb, gutter, sidewalk and storm drains, while contractors will demolish the existing road, rebuild the road base and resurface.

The 2009 street projects are broken into three phases:

- Contract 1, $225,000, runs now through late July on:

- Park Drive

- East Ninth Street from Fifth Avenue to Wilson Street

- Avenue J from 4th to 7th Street

- Contract 2, $430,000, is scheduled to run Aug. 1 through end of season

- West Ninth Street from Avenue L to Woodburn Avenue

- East Ninth Street from 6th to 8th Avenue

- East 13th Street from 6th to 7th Avenue

- East 10th Street from 6th to 8th Avenue

- West 10th Street from Avenue I to Avenue J

- Avenue J from West 3rd to West Fourth Street

- Avenue D from West Seventh to West 10th Street

- Downtown streetscape beautification project, $130,000

- East Second Street from 1st to 3rd Avenue

- Third Avenue from Second Street to Brinks Circle