I am so in the wrong line of work. I need to become a traffic consultant and get in good with IDOT.
The city wants to narrow Washington Street, add on-street parking, and widen the sidewalks as part of the effort to spur mixed use development in the Warehouse District. Now you might think that the city could just narrow the street, add on-street parking and widen the sidewalks, but you’d be wrong.
Why? Because Washington Street is a state route — Route 24, in fact. That means the Illinois Department of Transportation has to approve any changes, and they have procedures that require streets to always get wider and more pedestrian-hostile. So you can see what the city is up against.
One option is to move Route 24 to Adams and Jefferson streets, but then that causes other problems, such as the fact that Adams and Jefferson are one-way streets, and there’s a desire to convert them to two-way. If Route 24 moves there, then IDOT would have to approve the conversion there, so you’ve just traded one problem for another.
The good news is that there’s a process to try to change IDOT’s mind: Hire a consultant. For $525,000. Yes, a little more than a cool half a million. To put that in perspective, that’s like the equivalent of five assistant city managers.
First of all, don’t get me wrong. I’m glad that this process is moving forward — it shows that there’s a commitment to the plan for the Warehouse District. And secondly, you should know that Peoria doesn’t have to pay all of that — in fact, IDOT will pay $325,000 of the cost, and the council may decide to restrict the scope of the project so that it doesn’t exceed the IDOT-covered amount. So it might not cost Peoria anything (which makes you feel better until you realize that it’s just coming out of the taxes you pay to the state).
But still, whether a third or half a million, doesn’t that seem a bit crazy? Here we employ engineers at state and local levels. One would think they are more than capable of figuring out how to handle street drainage, or widen sidewalks, or change the painted lines from dotted white to double yellow. But in addition to the salary and benefits we pay for these engineers, we also need to pay over $300K to a consultant, and there’s no guarantee that his results will sway IDOT in the city’s favor.
Oh well, the important thing is that progress is being made… if the council passes the agenda item next Tuesday.
Let’s see, did I get this right? We want to make it harder for traffic to move through Peoria on U.S. Route 24, a 1540 mile-long highway running from Michigan to Colorado? The same U.S. Route 24 that we spent money on to bypass Washington to let traffic move easier? The same U.S. highway the we considered widening to four lanes from Washington to the east to provide better access to Chicago? The same U.S. highway that Indiana has been converting to a four-lane road almost the entire distance across that state to improve the attractiveness of areas near the highway for business?
The same U.S. highway that is the subject of a two-state project called “Fort to the Port?” Imagine, two states cooperating to take the old two-lane road and make a modern four lane route to promote safety, business, and improved transportation.
Other areas recognize the value of moving traffic, but Peoria wants to slow it down. This is that same Peoria mentality that thinks folks are going to come downtown to shop — get real!
John — you hit on an important point there: “The same U.S. Route 24 that we spent money on to bypass Washington to let traffic move easier?”
See, business 24 still goes through Washington, where the speed limit is mostly 35, closer to the square it’s 30, and around the square it’s as low as 25. The bypass goes around the city and has a faster speed limit. So slowing traffic through the Warehouse District is not without precedence. No city wants truck traffic going 55-65 mph through the heart of their downtown. That doesn’t “promote safety, business,” or “improved transportation.” Now if we made Washington Street business 24 and established a bypass….
And no, people by and large probably aren’t going to drive from the suburbs downtown to shop (at least initially). That’s why we need more residential downtown — because people who live downtown will shop downtown.
C.J., you make another reason for the ring road, which could take U.S. 24 around the north or south side of the area.
Now, do the folks that work downtown want their representatives to slow down traffic? Is there a reason they want their commutes to take longer?
If downtown was more attractive and slower… people might well move closer and thus their commutes would be lessoned. Also.. if you force the commutes to be longer, that in itself becomes and incentive to move closer to work, which can only be good for the older neighborhoods. Fast roads enable people to move out and live farther away. Take away that enabler.
Your right on that Mahkno. The ring road will only accelerate the decline of Peoria. Maybe that is the result some intend, but let’s not be shy about it. If you support the ring road you are supporting more sprawl and development that will hasten the decline of the central ciy and older neighborhoods. So let’s be consistent, if you are going to spend a ton of money on the ring road, let’s not waste any more money on trying to save the inner city. We could probably grow corn on the “Sears Block” and sell it to ADM.