Elmhurst Official's Decade-Long Request Sees Results

ELMHURST, IL – Elmhurst Alderman Michael Bram said this week he began asking about the collapsing sound wall along Interstate 290 about 10 years ago.

Results are coming in, he said.

"I am not kidding when I say that I started asking about this around a decade ago when only ONE panel of the sound wall collapsed leaving a large gap," Bram said in a Facebook post this week. "I would say there were no less than five panels replaced if not up to eight."

Bram, who represents northside Ward 3, said he was pleased to report that the state has fixed and replaced multiple sections of the wall.

Bram thanked Stan Balicki, the city's public works director, and his staff for taking "my persistence and translating that to not giving up until the state completed the work."

In the spring, Bram said a fence above the sound wall was dangerous dangling over Lake Street frontage in Elmhurst. He said the city followed up, prompting the state to take action.