143rd Street Saga — County Board Will Consider Reduced Plan
By Nick Reiher
The Will County Board will once again consider the issue of widening 143rd Street in Homer Township, but under a reduced plan offered as a compromise by Will County Executive Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant.
The segment in question, between State Street/Lemont Road and Bell Road, is in the final segment of the widening and reconstruction of 143rd Street Corridor plan begun in 1991.
But in the last two years, opponents of the widening have succeeded in stalling the project, including convincing the state Senate in May to not call a bill allowing for quick take acquisition of the land needed.
Will County Transportation Engineer Jeff Ronaldson has said the county already has spent $6 million on the project to expand that stretch from two lanes with a median to five lanes including the median, as has been completed for the rest of the corridor by the respective government agencies.
Ronaldson has said the county stands to lose a $7 million federal grant for construction of five-lane plan if it does not begin by September 2026.
As such, he presented a compromise plan at the September 2 Public Works and Transportation Committee meeting. The compromise, he and Bertino-Tarrant said, would reduce the scope of the five-lane project to the area between just west of Parker Road to Golden Oak Drive.
That would be sufficient to keep the $7 million grant viable for construction, Ronaldson said. Also, he said, the amount of land and right-of-way needed for the reduced project would amount to 25 percent – some 30 property owners — of that needed in the original plan.
The remainder of the land in the original plan would be taken off the acquisition list, he said, and offers already tendered would be rescinded.
Ronaldson asked the committee for a resolution supporting condemnation proceedings for those 30 parcels.
Bertino-Tarrant said she met with County Board members whose district are affected by the project, as well as Homer Glen Mayor Christina Neitzke-Troike.
The mayor did not support the compromise, she said, adding she did not expect Board Members Jim Richmond, R-Mokena, and Steve Balich, R-Homer Glen, to support it, either.
But other County Board members did show interest during the private meetings in pursuing the compromise, she said.
“If I didn’t feel there was enough support for it, I wouldn’t have brought it forward,” she told Farmers Weekly Review.
Opponents of the plan clearly did not want to see it come up yet again at the September 2 committee meeting, even in its reduced form.
Asked why the $7 million grant could not be used for a three-lane project, Ronaldson said because five lanes was the minimum allowed by the Illinois Department of Transportation because of the current traffic counts.
Several, including Neitzke-Troike, disputed those traffic counts, especially after the 159th Street widening project was completed several years ago.
“Do you need five lanes every mile,” asked Board Member Judy Ogalla, R-Monee.
Neitzke-Troike also said she talked to a representative of the Illinois Municipal League, and they told her all the county needed to do was send a letter saying they wanted to use the $7 million grant for another widening project in the county that was more necessary.
In response to the latter, Ronaldson told Farmers Weekly Review the mayor was incorrect.
“The (Will County Governmental League) is the agency in charge of those funds, and they set their own policies on project selection and awarding.
“What the Mayor is stating would be the first I have heard of such a thing and not in line with anything we have seen done in the past. It will be up to them to clarify what is being stated.”
As for the traffic counts, Ronaldson said that stretch of 143rd Street sees 18,000 vehicles a day, even with the 159th Street widening, because it is a main arterial from Interstate 355 through Orland Park.
“No one believes the county will stop at Parker,” Balich said.
But Ronaldson said if the compromise plan were approved, the County Board would have to approve adding the western section – as well as funding it — before it could go forward.
Opponents also were upset the committee voted down a request to allow the public present to speak before the vote. But they did allow Neitzke-Troike to speak.
“Use this for another project,” she said. “Be a hero in another community instead of a villain in Homer Glen.”
The committee voted to recommend approval to the full County Board at its September 18 meeting.
Nick Reiher is editor of Farmers Weekly Review.
