From Coffee-Table Napkins to Groundbreaking — Plank Road Realignment Becomes Reality
Kane County and village of Burlington officials celebrated decades of planning, studying and engineering of a long-awaited roadway improvement project called the Plank Road Realignment.
Thursday morning marked the groundbreaking ceremony for the project which will realign and reconstruct Plank Road from an existing offset alignment interrupted by two stop controlled “T” intersections at Burlington Road, to a proposed uninterrupted alignment with a new signalized intersection at Burlington Road.
The construction cost for the improvement is $4.6 million, funded with Kane County dollars, and completion of the project is expected in the fall of 2015.
“Though sketches on coffee table napkins may be older, this project has been in the planning stages at the Division of Transportation since the mid-1980s” read a statement from Village President Bob Walsh.
“This project will remove the jog created 163 years ago, return East Plank Road to the quiet neighborhood street it once was, provide a safe thoroughfare for travelers on Plank Road, especially at its intersection with Main Street, and create economic development opportunities that will benefit both Burlington and Kane County,” he said.
Noting many years of hard work and negotiations, Kane County Board Chairman Chris Lauzen praised the efforts it took to get to this point.
“Although they may not know you by name, when people use this improvement, they will know that you are the people who made their lives better,” he said.
Lauzen thanked the village of Burlington officials and staff for their partnership, and their efforts to secure much of the right-of-way property needed for the project.
“Many people consider breaking ground on a construction project the beginning of that project,” said Drew Frasz, Kane County Board Transportation Committee chairman. “But in the industry, we all know that it took many years to get here, so really, today we are celebrating what will be the final phase of the project.”
SOURCE: Kane County Division of Transportation press release
