In science fiction movies, the future is always imagined as dystopian. It is dark and rainy and all the buildings look like crumbling Mies van der Rohe creations.
I started to get that science-fictiony feeling as I was reading in the Oak Leaves recently about what will happen to Oak Park before, during and after the Eisenhower Expressway widening project.
Not that Oak Park will come to resemble the city in “Blade Runner.”
But, man, what a mess there is going to be!
At a recent village board meeting
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, a representative of the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) said that though several years away, the project would require four years of advance work to local roads and pedestrian bridges, followed by four years of construction.Under the proposal, North Avenue and Cermak Road would be resurfaced.
IDOT is planning to rebuild Oak Park bridges that go over the Ike, at Austin Boulevard, Harlem Avenue, Home Avenue, Oak Park Avenue, East Avenue, Ridgeland Avenue and Lombard Avenue.
The construction of each bridge could take up to 18 months. Bridge work would be staggered so that two consecutive bridges would not be under construction at the same time.
And portions of the highway could be reduced to a total of four lanes during construction.
There remains a certain if-iness about widening the expressway.
Where will the money come from for the project? Not yet known, IDOT says.
And even if the project had funding today, it couldn’t begin until 2020.
So, there is a lot to be done, a lot to be decided before work gets underway on widening the Eisenhower Expressway. But it’s going to happen, sooner or later.
And when it starts, as Trustee Colette Lueck said at a that recent village board meeting, “There’s no way this is going to be anything less than an ugly process.”
As things are decided, she said, Oak Parkers have to be kept informed.
That’s really important for those of us who live near the Ike. We need to know. Help us.
The noise …
The dust …
The traffic snarls …
Dystopian.
Paul Sassone is a freelance columnist for Pioneer Press.