Tim Landis
A study in the works at the Illinois Department of Transportation would take a look at changes needed to improve traffic flow for vehicles and pedestrians on the stretch between Wabash and South Grand avenues, including more and better sidewalks, road improvements, signal upgrades, intersection realignment, curbing and improved drainage.
“We want people to be able to walk from the neighborhoods to Hy-Vee or to Baskin-Robbins,” said Jen Dillman, president of the MacArthur Boulevard Association.
Aldermen are expected to vote in January on the city’s $10,000 share of the estimated $100,000 study cost. There are tentative plans to hold a public open house on the study next month. Unsightly power lines, crumbling curbs and sidewalks, uneven frontage properties and a mishmash of zoning rules were highlighted among the challenges facing MacArthur Boulevard in a 2010 analysis by The Lakota Group consulting firm.
Average daily traffic on the section of MacArthur, according to IDOT figures, ranges from 21,800 vehicles at Outer Park Drive to 18,000 at South Grand Avenue.
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Ward 7 Ald. Joe McMenamin, whose ward includes the MacArthur corridor, said Hy-Vee is the kind of anchor needed to encourage additional improvements to the boulevard. “The study will show us what improvements should be made long term,” McMenamin said. “The MacArthur Boulevard Association is showing real leadership on this. It’s a very important issue.”
Aldermen early this year approved $3.5 million from a MacArthur Boulevard tax increment financing district to repay Hy-Vee for redevelopment costs at the former Kmart site, 2115 S. MacArthur.
Joe McMenamin for Ward 7 