Anyone driving west through Brookfield on 31st Street should prepare for impacts to their route during work hours throughout the coming months.
Construction work under the north sidewalk along 31st Street from Maple Avenue to Sunnyside Avenue will begin Monday as part of the village’s water main improvements project for this year. Preliminary work will start later this week. According to Brookfield, the work should “be substantially complete” by the beginning of November.
Traffic will remain open in both directions on 31st Street for the duration of the replacements, but one of the two westbound lanes will close during work hours, generally 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Traffic heading east “should not be impacted,” the village said, but one of the eastbound lanes could close at times if needed for safety.
Residents who live on the north side of the road may have their access to their driveways restricted as construction work passes their property, but access will be restored at the end of each workday, the village said. Affected residents will receive notice at least 24 hours in advance.
Parking spots along 31st Street will stay open during construction, save for “minor periodic limitations.”
The work involves replacing 1,300 feet of the village’s water main under the sidewalk. According to the village, about half of Brookfield’s 60 miles of water main are more than 100 years old.
It will also include the installation of copper water services to replace lead water service lines, part of a village project to replace all lead lines in town after Illinois mandated it in 2022. While Brookfield has until 2044 to complete the project, the village is well ahead of schedule, with nearly one in four lead lines in town set to be replaced by the end of the year. In July, Brookfield trustees ended a village program to reimburse residents who replaced lead lines early due to their confidence that the village can replace them all well before the deadline, possibly within five years.
Other work will involve installing and repairing sewer lining and restoring disturbed areas after the rest of the work is complete.
Road closures near the Congress Park train station
Two streets just south of Brookfield’s Congress Park Metra station will be closed to all traffic for the next two weeks.
DuBois Boulevard from Burlington Avenue to Ogden Avenue and Burlington Avenue from DuBois Boulevard to Deyo Avenue will close down Monday until Sept. 3 as part of the village’s street improvements project for 2024.
The Metra station will remain open for the duration of construction, but the parking lot just west of the station, where Burlington Avenue turns left and becomes DuBois Boulevard, will be inaccessible due to the scope of the work. The larger parking lot immediately south will remain open, but commuters will only be able to access it from an alleyway to the south that extends off Blanchan Avenue. Parking north of the station will not be impacted.
The work will involve replacing the entire curb and gutter and repaving the roads after removing the existing pavement.
Brookfield has been eyeing the street facelift since 2021, when a public works survey revealed the need to improve this area, other portions of Burlington Avenue and some other village roads, including Fairview, Madison and Morton avenues.
Planning for this construction has been underway since October, when Brookfield approved a contract for design services with its regular contracted engineering firm, Hancock Engineering.
Update, Aug. 14, 2024, 12:30 p.m.: This story has been updated with a new section about road closures near the Congress Park train station.
