Bloomington public works director welcomes planned Veterans Parkway improvements

Posted on June 14, 2018
An engineering study of the Veterans Parkway-Empire Street intersection is slated for this year under the state’s five-year highway improvement plan. (Google Maps)

By Greg Halbleib and Ashley Antonini

BLOOMINGTON – Bloomington leaders are welcoming improvements to Veterans Parkway the state is planning over the next five years.

The work is part of the road improvement plan released last month by Governor Rauner. The entire length of more than six miles of Veterans Parkway is scheduled to be resurfaced over the next five years, beginning in the upcoming year with nearly a mile and a half between Washington Street and Clearwater Avenue at a cost of $3.1 million.

Other resurfacing in the state’s five-year plan includes a considerable portion of Routes 9 and 150 through the city.

The plan also includes preliminary stages of a new study to improve the intersection of Veterans Parkway and Empire Street. Bloomington Public Works Director Jim Karch said the intersection endures the most accidents in the community.

“A typical four-way stop intersection with traffic signals is not going to work at Empire and Veteran’s Parkway. It just won’t,” Karch told WJBC’s Scott Laughlin. “So how can you best accomodate? It’s almost 50,000 vehicles a day at Veterans Parkway at that place.”

Karch said a variety of options at the intersection are possible, including overpasses.

The state says the engineering for the feasibility study will cost about $500,000. Karch points out the Veterans-Empire re-do is years away.

Greg Halbleib can be reached at [email protected]. 

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