Kadner: A 27-foot wide median eyed for LaGrange Road

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Updated: February 21, 2012 8:38AM

A 27-foot-wide landscaped median will be the most conspicuous design element in the widening of LaGrange Road between 131st and 179th streets in Orland Park.

The road widening project, with a total price tag of $106 million when completed, is slated to begin late this summer or early fall and continue through 2014.

When completed, LaGrange Road will be three lanes in each direction. Left-turn lanes will be cut into the median at only a few locations, where motorists can make U-turns to reach stores on the other side of the road.

That element is bound to create some frustration among consumers who are used to making left turns at will into the driveways of many of the shops and fast-food restaurants that dot one the busiest shopping strips in the Southland.

However, spokesmen for the Illinois Department of Transportation (which is financing the project) and Orland Park contend that once the project is completed, traffic will not only move faster on LaGrange Road but the road will be safer.

Between 34,000 and 42,000 vehicles move through that stretch of LaGrange Road on an average day, according to IDOT.

Recent intersection improvements at 143rd and 159th streets (which feature double left-turn lanes) were made in anticipation of the LaGrange Road widening project, according to the village and IDOT.

In addition to 16 intersections where traffic signals will be located, IDOT says left-turn lanes will be located just south of 151st Street, just south of 153rd Street, near 157th Street (for the U.S. Army maintenance depot) and at 161st, 165th and 175th streets. So there would seem to be plenty of opportunities to make left turns.

Orland Park will pay for the landscaping of the medians and be partially reimbursed by IDOT. The landscaping will include trees, planter boxes, outlets for holiday lights and brick crosswalks for pedestrians, according to IDOT.

I don’t know that I’ve ever seen 27-foot-wide medians. To give you some concept of how wide they would be, an average lane of traffic on a state road is 11 to 12 feet wide.

I don’t recall seeing a median anything like that, but IDOT claims it has constructed similar medians in St. Charles and Carol Stream.

It’s obvious the medians are an attempt to create a real downtown atmosphere on LaGrange Road.

For the first time, I can sort of comprehend Mayor Dan McLaughlin’s vision of the Metra Triangle Project (near 143rd Street and LaGrange Road) in combination with the widening work as fashioning a new Main Street for Orland Park.

The cost of the widening project is estimated at $73 million, and IDOT has allotted $1.1 million for land acquisition this year. My understanding is that IDOT is still acquiring right-of-way.

A brochure prepared by the U.S. Department of Transportation titled “Safe Access Is Good for Business,” has been distributed to merchants along LaGrange Road by IDOT to explain the importance of limiting left-hand turns on an arterial street.

The brochure contends that adding access points on major roads can increase crash rates among vehicles by 30 percent.

IDOT identified eight high-accident locations along LaGrange Road during a three-year study from 2001 to 2003.

Guy Tridgell, spokesman for IDOT, said the majority of these were rear-end accidents.

“When people slow down, or stop, to make a left turn on an arterial street, traffic backs up, people become impatient and there is a greater likelihood of rear-end collisions,” Tridgell said.

“By providing left-turn-only lanes, traffic will continue flowing at a high rate of speed in the other three lanes of traffic. People will get to where they want to go more quickly.”

The LaGrange Road project has been discussed for years, so the fact it’s happening isn’t news. But I have to admit I never understood the entirety of the concept.

I just thought another lane of traffic would be added in each direction. My first reaction was, “You’re going to have people making U-turns on LaGrange Road? Seriously?”

And while I’m not entirely convinced this is going to work as smoothly as the transportation experts claim, I’m willing to suspend my disbelief.

But the next two-plus years, as construction takes place, I’m going to be doing my best to avoid LaGrange Road.

IDOT couldn’t tell me whether construction would start at the north or south end of the project or exactly when it would begin.

It seems that there’s always some massive road construction project under way in Orland Park these days.

That’s the price you pay for commercial success.

There are a lot of suburbs that would love to have that problem.