Forest Parkers can get a peek on Monday at what the Illinois Dept. of Transportation may be planning when they may re-do the Harlem Avenue exits of I 290.
The Oak Park Village Board has called a special meeting for Monday, June 11, to allow IDOT to present information on what, if anything, should be done with the Austin and Harlem interchange ramps on the Eisenhower Expressway.
The meeting starts at 7 p.m. and will be held in the council chambers of Oak Park Village Hall, 123 Madison St., Oak Park.
Monday night’s meeting will focus on the ramps, according Rob Cole, Oak Park’s assistant village manager. IDOT has called the left-lane exit ramps “problematic.”
Initial suggestions from IDOT are to look into moving the on and off ramps to one side or the other, instead of in the center. IDOT will present renderings of the proposals at the meeting.
Cole said IDOT has indicated that they plan on staying within the expressway’s current “footprint,” and not extend the area. That doesn’t mean, however, that it would have no major impact on the surrounding properties, Cole said.
In Forest Park, that might include the U-Haul property at 801 Harlem and possibly the space used by Community Garden north of the expressway.
IDOT concepts for Austin and Harlem I-290 interchanges
