143rd Street Widening Project May Need Jurisdictional Transfer

ORLAND PARK, IL — The widening of 143rd Street in Orland Park has been in the discussion for several years, and now officials in the village have expressed willingness to take jurisdiction of a portion of the road to get it done. The area of 143rd between Will-Cook Road and Wolf Road is currently the responsibility of the Illinois Department of Transportation, but the village of Orland Park has already completed engineering on a widening project that would turn the thoroughfare in that area into a five-lane street with two lanes going each way and one center turn lane.

Village trustees agreed during a Feb. 17 committee of the whole meeting to continue looking into the jurisdictional transfer possibility, which officials have inferred ideally would mean the state funds the $14 million project for now, but that the village would have responsibility some 30 years from now or whenever the road would need to be improved again.

The need for this came from IDOT not selecting the 143rd Street project as part of its 2020-2025 multi-year program.

Mayor Keith Pekau points to a project several years ago from Ravinia to Harlem avenues in which the village had to take jurisdiction to get a road improved.

"Since I have been in office, I have routinely fielded complaints about 143rd Street," Pekau said. "This project will address every complaint I have heard over the last 3 years and is the number one priority regional project for the Southwest Conference of Mayors as well."

Engineering on the improvement of 143rd from Wolf Road to Southwest Highway, the eastern part of the project, is expected to begin later this year. This phase of the work is expected to cost much more at $54 million due to various terrain issues.

The village will still try to get a federal grant and seek other federal transportation funds to help pay for the improvement of the entire stretch, though.

"We're attacking it from multiple directions," Pekau said, noting the jurisdictional transfer as just "one of the ways to get it done."

Watch the entire Feb. 17 Village of Orland Park Committee of the Whole board meeting below: