Homewood’s Dixie Highway viaduct will be closed for at least three months while the Illinois Department of Transportation carries out flood mitigation repairs and resurfacing, village officials say.
The viaduct will likely close in April, said Public Works Director Joshua Burman. It will be fully closed for at least 90 days, with construction estimated to last through October, the village said in its announcement.
IDOT originally planned the project to begin in 2027, but moved the timeline up due to repeated flooding, the village’s announcement said.
“This is long overdue with all the flooding that we’ve been having at the north viaduct,” Burman said. “Pretty much any time we have any type of significant rain, I have staff out there or the Police Department is out there, and we’re closing it down until the storm has passed and the water’s receded.”
Some of the drainage infrastructure is failed or failing, Burman said, leading to the flood problems.
“There’s probably a lot of debris in there that’s just kind of accumulated over the years,” Burman said. “With the pipe, we believe it’s like collapsing on itself, kind of choking it off, so that’s why we’re having that issue.”
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Documents available from IDOT online say the project will affect Dixie Highway from Sycamore Drive, near Balagio Ristorante, to Harwood Avenue, which is just past the viaduct itself.
Burman said the village still needs to meet with IDOT to finalize plans about the date of closure and what detours will look like.
“Residents are going to have to be patient with us and IDOT. It’s going to obviously impact the day-to-day commuting,” Burman said. “But once this is done, I think this is going to be a great thing for the community. We should have no further viaduct issues moving forward.”
Burman said that the highway was going to be resurfaced from Balagio Ristorante to the viaduct, reducing it from two lanes going either direction to one lane going each direction and a central turn lane as a traffic calming measure.
A bike lane will also be added to either side of the road for pedestrian traffic, Burman said.
A similar lane reduction plan for 183rd Street was rejected by Homewood Village Board last year.
“Existing condition, you have two lanes of traffic in either direction with no turn lane, or like median, in the middle. Some sidewalk, some not sidewalk,” Burman said.
The road under the viaduct itself already consists of one lane going each direction. The traffic pattern under the viaduct is not planned to change, Burman said, but the hope is that the lane reduction improves traffic on the whole impacted stretch of highway.
“I think that’s part of the measure of why they’re looking to convert it into that one lane in either direction west of the viaduct,” Burman said. “It just kind of keeps everything kind of streamlined.”
Many residents have asked about the possibility of adding traffic mirrors to the viaduct as part of the project, Burman said. However, Burman said that is unlikely because adding mirrors risks creating new hazards with glare.
Another change residents have expressed interest in is crosswalk improvements, Burman said, but that is not part of the plan for the project.
“The initiative of this project is clearing the stormwater from the roadway and then trying to do some traffic calming measures,” Burman said.
Updates will be shared with residents through the village’s social media, newsletter and resident app as Homewood learns more details from IDOT about the project, according to the village.