Mid City Transit Way | Milwaukee Avenue Improvement Plan (Streetscaping)

CDOT (Chicago Department of Transportation) has recently had a presentation about the Mid City Transit Way that has been proposed to go through the Portage Park and Jefferson Park neighborhoods.

The Mid City Transit Way will pass along the tracks by Cicero and continue on for 22 miles to Midway Airport. The new proposed highway would start at the Jefferson Park station and veer off at Montrose south to the Ford Shopping Center.

Update - 02/10/2005

Thanks to the persistence of Ald. Tom Allen & Ald. Margaret Laurino, Luann Hamilton of the Chicago Dept. of Transportation has agreed to present the findings of the Mid City Transitway feasibility studies at the Monday, March 14 meeting of the Old Irving Park Association.

Mark your calendars for Monday, March 14th, 7 PM, Salvation Army, 4007 West Belle Plaine at Pulaski (one block north of Irving Park Rd.). For more information contact Anna Sobor, President, Old Irving Park Association, at oldirvingparkassn@yahoo.com or (773) 725-1267.

PPNA Members: This issue is important to our community as the proposed Mid-City Transitway would be built near our eastern border. This meeting will be held at the same day and time as the PPNA public meeting. A representative of the PPNA will be in attendance to gather information for the PPNA News and for the membership in general.

The Milwaukee Improvement Project (streetscaping) has reportedly been approved and funds allocated for design work in 2006 and construction in 2007. This timeline applies to portion running from Montrose to has developed a petition to plea for the allocation of funds for the streetscaping project and to be completed at the same time as the Milwaukee Avenue Improvement Project.

Phase II is to have the final plans and specifications and it would be presented to the community again for feedback. The expected time on Phase II would be winter of 2003 to 2004. Phase III would be the construction, which may begin around 2005, subject to funding.

The Milwaukee Improvement Project calls for 8.19 miles of Milwaukee Avenue to be repaved and additional improvements will be implemented such as traffic signals, pavement markings, street lighting, roadway drainage, curbs, gutters, and sidewalks. The project is expected to take 12 years to complete, at approximately 1 mile per year. Construction will begin at the northwest end and proceed south for an 8 mile stretch of Milwaukee.

Subject to the availability of funds, streetscape is planned for all of the Milwaukee Avenue project to the extent that space and other factors permit. At Cicero and at Irving Park Road, the improvements will extend approximately 2 blocks in each direction from the Milwaukee Avenue intersection. A raised center median with landscape would be placed in the middle of Cicero Avenue on the north side of Irving Park Road by the Sears store. Sidewalk planter boxes may be placed on the sidewalk on Cicero in front of Sears, if funding permits. Traffic signal timing would be improved to help alleviate traffic congestion. And the left turn lane at southbound Cicero will be extended to allow more vehicle to be out of the way of through traffic.

updated 03/13/2005 | comments