In 2009, the City’s Engineering Department received Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) funding for the construction of sidewalk on both sides of IL 7 / 9^th Street from Lincoln Street to Farrell Road.  This project was completed in 2011.

During the engineering process, it was determined that several locations required special consideration in the form of culvert extensions, retaining walls or pedestrian bridges, to make a sidewalk feasible.  This caused the project to be much more costly, creating “gaps” in the sidewalk due to lack of available funding.  A decision was made to construct as much sidewalk as possible with the available funding, skipping the difficult areas.

In August 2010, the City’s engineering Department applied for and received ITEP funding to fill in these gaps, construct a new sidewalk on the North side of IL-7, between Farrell Road and Adelmann Road and install pedestrian push buttons at Farrell & Rt. 7 and Adelman & Rt. 7.

The design is complete, and the project is scheduled to be on the April 24th IDOT letting schedule.  Once the project is awarded to a contractor, you will find more information on Construction Updates.