Wolf Road to West Avenue: Final design engineering began in late 2023. In 2024, the Village will once again submit RAISE and TARP grantapplications requesting approximately 25.5 million dollars in funding. The Village has committed its own funds for any remaining gaps in funding.
West Avenue to Southwest Highway: Construction funding is secured with over $6 million dollars committed by the Village. The total estimated construction cost is $14 million dollars. Design engineering of this section is underway and construction is expected to begin in 2026.
This section of the project will widen 143rd Street from a two-lane road to a four-lane road with left and right-turn lanes added throughout the entire 143rd Street Widening project to provide additional capacity for vehicular traffic. New traffic signals will be installed at Crystal Tree Drive and a land bridge and retaining walls will also be constructed in this section of the project. Phase I Preliminary Engineering is currently in progress with only 5% work remaining, which will be completed by early 2023.
The Village has selected and is under contract with a Phase II design engineering consultant. Design engineering is anticipated to start in the spring of 2023. Phase II entails the final design of the project, including but not limited to; design of retaining walls, roadway support systems, traffic signals, roadway configuration, identify land for temporary and permanent use and bike trail. The project will also install natural and mechanical devices designed to improve the quality of water released into the slough.
Traffic Signal Interconnect
The connection of traffic signals from Wolf Road to Southwest Highway will allow for better coordination and traffic flow during non-peak periods. Work for the project began in January 2021 and was completed in May 2022. The installation of new pedestrian countdown signals and wireless interconnect equipment will provide an immediate benefit to motorists and pedestrians along 143rd Street.
This project is currently in Phase I Engineering (99% complete) and is anticipating completion in early 2023. The Village has obtained partial federal funding for Phase II Engineering and has identified other funding sources to fully fund Phase II Engineering, which is anticipated to start in Spring 2023. At this time, funding for right-of-way acquisition, construction and construction engineering have not been identified. The Village is continuing to work with IDOT on identifying funding and have also applied for federal funding several times over the past several years but has been largely unsuccessful in obtaining a large amount of funding needed for the project.
In Fall 2019, the Village received federal funding to construct a traffic signal interconnect for all signals along 143rd Street from Wolf Road to La Grange Road, which should help improve traffic progression. The Village is advancing forward with this project ahead of the larger corridor improvement to provide some interim relief of congestion, specifically in the Old Orland area between West Avenue and Ravinia Avenue. In May 2020 and May 2022, the Village submitted a federal-funding application for a $25 million request (the maximum amount) towards construction of the project.
The proposed improvements for 1.7-mile roadway segment of 143rd Street include:
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Reconstruct 143rd Street between Wolf Road and Southwest Highway to provide a five-lane cross section, consisting of two travel lanes in each direction separated by a median to accommodate left-turn lanes.
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Construct the median with barrier curb and gutter to prevent potential cross-median crashes. Away from the left-turn lanes, the median will be landscaped. A flush median will be provided between Ridge Avenue and West Avenue to provide a continuous turn lane for all local side streets.
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New traffic signal at Crystal Tree Drive/143rd Street intersection.
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Consolidate the North Union Street/143rd Street intersection and Southwest Highway/143rd Street intersection into one signalized intersection. North Union Street will be realigned to meet at the Southwest Highway/143rd Street intersection, which will significantly improve traffic congestion for existing and future traffic. Dual left-turn lanes will be provided from 143rd Street onto Southwest Highway and dual right-turn lanes will be provided on Southwest Highway onto 143rd Street.
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One additional through lane in each direction will be provided on Wolf Road at its intersection with 143rd Street to increase capacity at the intersection.
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Reconfiguration of the 143rd Street Metra Station – Southwest Highway commuter parking lot and adding 245 spaces to provide a total of 507 parking stalls at the lot.
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A total of 33 retaining walls will be included in the project to minimize impacts to commercial, residential, forest preserve and other natural areas.
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Construct a storm sewer system with barrier curb and gutter at the roadside edges and inlets to collect stormwater runoff from the pavement.
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Construct a continuous 10-foot wide multi-user path along the north right-of-way of 143rd Street to safely accommodate pedestrians, joggers and bicyclists between school, residential and commercial areas.
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Construct continuous 5-foot wide sidewalk segments along the south right-of-way of 143rd Street to complete the gaps in the sidewalk network.
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Raise the roadway profile of 143rd Street approximately 5 feet along the Tributary to Long Run Creek floodplain (between Wolf Road and 108th Avenue) to alleviate frequent occurrences of pavement flooding, which are sometimes so severe they force 143rd Street to be closed to traffic.
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Replace the 143rd Street pipe culverts at Tributary to Long Run Creek with larger concrete box culverts to accommodate the design year flood without overtopping of the road.
Property acquisition will be required from numerous properties directly adjacent to 143rd Street. In 2011, the Village secured a 17-foot permanent easement along the McGinnis Slough Forest Preserve to be utilized for this project. The proposed improvement has been moved as far to the north as possible in this area of the project. A retaining wall is being utilized along the forest preserve property. Additional permanent easements are being acquired from the Forest Preserve District for drainage and water quality improvements.
As part of the Public Information Meeting, any property that has proposed property acquisition as part of this project received a personalized invite letter and exhibit showing the proposed acquisition. Property acquisition typically will occur during Phase II Engineering, contingent upon funding.
Schedule
The Village is targeting Phase I Design Approval in early 2023 with Phase II Engineering initiating in early 2023. At this time land acquisition and construction funding have not been identified, so a construction start date has not been identified.
Cost
The current construction cost is estimated at $49,000,000.
Other Project Information
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Depending on the amount funding secured, the Village may stage implement the project, with Stage 1 being from West Avenue to Southwest Highway and Stage 2 being Wolf Road to West Avenue.
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As part of the environmental studies for this project, a traffic noise study has been conducted following Federal and State project development procedures for the proposed improvements as well as the No-Build, or “do-nothing” option.
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The analysis found that, due to the proposed improvements, predicted future noise levels along 143rd Street between Compton Court and the First Midwest Bank driveway justify the installation of a 10-foot tall noise wall for a 400-foot distance. The noise wall will mitigate noise impacts for 9 benefitted residents.
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A noise forum meeting was held on June 9th with the 9 befitted residents and a majority of benefitted receptors voted to include the noise wall with this project. The Village or IDOT do not control if the noise wall is included as part of the project (per federal guidelines).
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The actual style of the noise wall would be determined during the next phase of engineering.
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More information about the traffic noise analysis process and guidelines can be found on the IDOT website at http://idot.illinois.gov/transportation-system/environment/index (Community Tab\Traffic Noise)
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A Public Information Meeting was held via Zoom on December 17, 2020, with all information posted to a Public Information Meeting website. The official comment period was from December 10, 2020 through January 11, 2021. A Public Information Meeting summary along with a response to questions document is posted on this project webpage. The Village considered all comments received, and performed several additional design evaluations following the Public Information Meeting based on public comments received. All submitted questions have been responded to either with a direct email from the project team or within the Public Response to Questions document.
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