Drivers who use Lake Avenue to head east to the Edens Expressway or into Wilmette can expect delays between now and the end of the November, as crews working on Wilmette sewer control projects narrow eastbound traffic to one lane near the Glenview-Wilmette border, said Brigitte Berger, Wilmette’s engineering and public works director.
The closure will help the village complete $1.7 million of work that includes building a sewage tank pump lift station near the village’s existing stormwater pump station and connecting an almost-completed underground sewage storage tank at West Park to the station, Berger said.
The traffic disruption will last through November, she said, and will narrow eastbound traffic to one lane on Lake in front of Wilmette’s stormwater pump station. The station lies north of Lake and west of Harms Road.
That will allow contractors to reroute a sanitary sewer under Lake Avenue, in order to connect it, and a new back flow control valve to the new sewage pump lift station, she said.
Eastbound Lake traffic sustained one earlier closure, also for the project, at the intersection of Lake and Manor Drive, just east of the Edens. That narrowed traffic to one lane, starting Aug. 26, as crews connected the Lake Avenue sanitary sewer to a 20-foot deep manhole under the street. That work was to end Sept. 4, Berger said.
The new lift station will connect to, and control, Wilmette’s new 5.5 million gallon sewage detention tank at West Park. The $15 million tank and the pump lift station work comprise the lion’s share of Wilmette’s $26 million west Wilmette storm and sewer flood control program.
Ultimately, it will allow Wilmette to route west Wilmette sewage flow, including any sewage stored in the tank after storms put pressure on the sanitary sewer system, safely into the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, officials have said.
The new back flow valve on the sanitary sewer will prevent MWRD sewage flows from backing up into Wilmette’s system, or into Wilmette residents’ basements, Berger said in a July report to the village board.
Work on the underground storage tank began last fall, after Wilmette officials completed negotiations with the Wilmette Park District in order to make use of the park. The tank should be complete by mid-September, Berger said in her July report.
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