Several unforeseen events have delayed completion of the North Aurora Road widening work being done in Naperville.
In a recent memorandum, the city’s Transportation, Engineering and Development Director Bill Novack said the $10.1 million roadway project between Frontenac Road and Weston Ridge Drive started in April 2021 and was to be finished by fall.
However, an equipment operators strike last summer was the first of several issues to hold up construction, he said.
Plans call for the expansion of the existing three-lane roadway to five lanes — two traffic lanes in each direction and a center turn lane — to make it safer for pedestrians and bicyclists.
Once completed, the second $14.5 million phase of the North Aurora Road underpass project will begin. The 110-year-old Canadian National/Wisconsin Central Railroad bridge is to be replaced with a new structure spanning the newly expanded five traffic lanes.
Naperville received a $6 million grant from the federal government to fund the first phase, which is being overseen by the Illinois Department of Transportation.
Novack said construction was progressing well until the seven-week strike.
Work also came to a stop because the contractor was unable to find alternative materials that would meet IDOT requirements, he said.
Once the strike was settled, work started back slowly as materials they had in hand had been exhausted.
As a result, construction pushed into 2023, Novack said.
When the liquid asphalt supplier for the paving contractor experienced an explosion, production was again halted and very little work has occurred this year, he said.
While the paving contractor found a different supplier for liquid asphalt, a test strip with the new mix design failed and now a different one is under review, Novack said.
Paving can commence once the latest mix passes the tests and IDOT approves it, which is expected in the next couple of weeks, he said.
