The mayor of Franklin Park says planned roadway improvements in the village will not only relieve traffic congestion but also serve to improve the local business climate.
The town, which abuts the south end of O’Hare airport, will widen Franklin Avenue and add a new ramp to provide southbound access to I-294.
“Together with the Elgin-O’Hare Western Access project, the Franklin Avenue reconstruction will help to decrease congestion and travel times in the region by getting trucks off of local roads and onto the tollway system more efficiently,” Mayor Barrett Pedersen said.
The Franklin Park road improvements are tied indirectly to the O’Hare western bypass project that will include construction of the new I-490 tollway, which is planned to connect with I-390, the Elgin-O’Hare Tollway.
“Franklin Park will benefit greatly by the improved access to the tollway system and reduced congestion and travel times on local roads,” Pedersen said. “Businesses look for this kind of network that allows for efficient travel throughout the region.”
In addition to the Franklin Avenue reconstruction, portions of Mannheim Road, Belmont Avenue and Williams Street also will be widened.
A variety of sources are providing nearly $35 million in funding for the project, including, according to officials, $28.4 million from IDOT, $2.5 million from the federal Surface Transportation Program, $2 million from local TIF funds, $1.3 million from Cook County and a $784,000 grant from the federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement program.
“We’re also hopeful that the recently-passed Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal will make resources available to allow for the further modernization of infrastructure,” Pedersen said. “It would be a major benefit if Franklin Park was able to modernize its road network with funds from the bill to meet new development standards and more adequately handle the demands of daily vehicular and truck traffic.”
Pedersen’s optimism was echoed by Ken Kollar, a 1st Vice-President of the Chamber by O’Hare, a consortium of some 140 businesses in Franklin Park, Bensenville, Schiller Park, River Grove and Leyden Township.
“We see the completion of I-490 as a big plus for not just Franklin Park but for all the surrounding villages,” Kollar said. “Mayor Pedersen has done a lot since he’s been in office. Things have been very business-friendly in terms of encouraging growth and eliminating a lot of the roadblocks that were in place.”
The I-490 corridor as well as the Franklin Avenue reconstruction are both scheduled for completion by the end of 2023, according to Pedersen and Illinois Tollway documents.
In a recent village newsletter, Pedersen touted the groundbreaking for a 100,000-square-foot distribution facility, saying that Franklin Park’s central location makes it “an excellent choice for logistics, distribution, manufacturing and assembly facilities.”
“Over the last eight years, the Village’s industrial corridor west of Mannheim Road has seen the construction of over 4.2 million square feet of modern ‘Class A’ industrial buildings and the creation of over 3,000 jobs,” Pedersen said. “The Illinois Tollway forecasts that the completion of the western bypass project will create as many as 65,000 jobs in the region and serve an estimated 120,000 vehicles per day. By providing more efficient access to the tollway system and getting trucks off of local roads, delays on local roads will be reduced by 24 percent.”
Pedersen and Kollar both credited much of Franklin Park’s success to Community Development and Zoning Director John Schneider.
“John Schneider has been exceptionally beneficial to the Village of Franklin Park, helping to develop a modern Comprehensive Plan and the overhaul of a Zoning Code that was sorely in need of updating and coherence,” Pedersen said. “Mr. Schneider has calibrated the Village’s vision of the best possible use of land and development. The role he has been performing for the Village of Franklin Park has been nothing short of exceptional.”