West 127th Street in Plainfield between Heggs Road and Northwest Community Park is a narrow two-lane stretch of road that dips precipitously down into ditches on either side.
Town officials say multiple cars slid off the road there during the Feb. 1 blizzard.
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For others, it didn’t take a snowstorm to cause problems. Mark and Amanda Roe, who lived just south of 127th in the Shenandoah subdivision at the time, said they heard a noise one evening in June 2013 that sounded like wood cracking in their backyard, which faces the road.
Amanda Roe walked by the kitchen window “and realized there was a car in our backyard,” her husband, Mark, recounted later that year.
No one was injured after the car careened off 127th through the fence and into their yard, but the Roes saw it as an indicator that improvements were needed on the busy road.
Now, the village is getting ready to begin a project to expand and spruce up that stretch of 127th.
Trustees approved about $300,000 at a board meeting in March to begin work on the road project, which village staff estimate will cost about $4 million.
The improvements will include an about two-thirds mile portion of 127th starting just east of Heggs, Tara Orban, of the engineering firm Baxter & Woodman, told the board at its March 16 meeting.
The road will be changed from a two-lane rural road with ditches to a three-lane, more urban road that will include curbs, gutters and a painted median.
New storm sewers, roadway lighting and a bike path on the street’s south side are also part of the plan, she told the board in a video of the meeting posted on the village’s YouTube site.
Plainfield secured $2 million in federal funds for the project last fall, she said.
Because of the federal dollars, a variety of studies, assessments and other steps must be done before any of the work can commence, she said.
A public meeting will take place to receive input from interested parties, Orban said, and there will be an analysis of crash data for the road to best determine safety measures.
Improving that stretch of 127th Street is a part of the village’s five-year plan, Public Works Director Allen Persons said.
“This has been a high priority project,” he said. “The ditches are steep.”
Village Manager Brian Murphy praised staff for securing the federal funds, which were obtained via the Will County Governmental League.
“Absent the $2 million, it does become a very difficult project, financially, for the village,” he said.
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