The East side of Vienna near Interstate 24 was busy with maintenance and construction crews. The city had people working on the water mains.
VIENNA, Ill. (WSIL)---Water should be back on for businesses and homes on the East side of Vienna. It was shut off for construction work.
The East side of Vienna near Interstate 24 was busy with maintenance and construction crews. The city’s Mayor Steve Penrod says people working on the water mains.
“We're having to move our water mains, our sewer, and our gas, all of our services out away from the road to make way for the IDOT to do their project. So, we're on the final stages of it now,� Penrod said.
Penrod says they had to turn off the water to do the work, forcing some businesses to close for the day.
“Yeah, no doubt it affects the businesses and we hate that. But you know, it's like there's no other option to do the swap over,� Penrod says. “We considered doing it later in the evening or a different day, but it's an all-day project.�
Some people visiting Vienna were surprised by the temporary closures, including Sada Sterns who likes eating at the Vienna Diner.
“As soon as we turned the corner we saw that there was no open sign at the diner,� Sterns says. “I'm sure everybody comes to the diner, so we're all kind of shocked. It's closed.�
Penrod encourages people to be patient. The city is almost done with its part, but IDOT will be expanding the road into Vienna off I-24 and adding a bike path along the south side of Route 146 from the state trail.
“That'll get a lot of the bike traffic and pedestrian traffic off of the highway, which is currently going on, and it's somewhat of a hazard. So we're really looking forward to getting that improvement made as well,� Penrod said.
Sterns says she can see how the construction can change Vienna for the better.
“It'll probably be good because there's this huge disconnect in Vienna where you have everything that's down by the interstate and then you have the really nice little downtown with the square and they've got coffee shops,� Sterns said.
Penrod says Vienna’s utility work should impact residents for no longer than two to four weeks and they may have two other water outages lasting less than a day.
Penrod added that IDOT’s project should be finished by late summer of 2025.
