Construction shuts down part of Hillcrest Drive changing route 7/9

If you enjoyed the Lucinda Avenue closing, Hillcrest Drive should be a nice little treat today for students riding the Huskie bus route 7/9.

Between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. today, Hillcrest Drive will be open to only local traffic between Normal Road and Garden Road and closed to all traffic between Garden Road and Crayton Circle West. After 5 p.m., it will be reopened for full traffic use.

A detour route on Ridge Drive will be established for east/west traffic between First Street and Normal Road.

Huskie Line Street Supervisor Jack Kozumplik said as of Friday, he had not been notified of the closure, but the Huskie bus route 7/9 will be affected.

The route, which is mainly used by students going to the NIU engineering building in Sycamore, will miss two of its stops with today’s reroute.

“If we have to reroute, the bus will miss the Fairmont stop and the Normal Road and Hillcrest Drive stop,” Kozumplik said

Bus riders who normally board at either of those stops will be “picked up on the corner of First Street and Hillcrest Drive in front of the Checker Station,” he said. Today’s alternate route will stay on First Street and take Augusta Avenue as a detour.

DeKalb Civil Engineer Joel Maurer said the road construction is because of the new 40-lot housing subdivision being built on the south side of Hillcrest Drive.

“There is going to be some construction that will require part of the road to be torn open for the storm sewer system for the new subdivision,” Maurer said.

The construction will take place around 200 feet east of Garden Road. No other street closures because of the construction of the subdivision are foreseen, he said.

“If we have to reroute, the bus (7/9) will miss the Fairmont stop and the Normal Road and Hillcrest Drive stop.”