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McLean County board hears two-year plan to remake Veterans Parkway after federal planning award
Summary
The McLean County Board received a presentation on a federally funded, two-year planning process to redesign a 10-mile stretch of Veterans Parkway to improve safety and multimodal access; the project has a $675,000 estimated cost with a $100,000 federal RAISE planning grant and local match.
Ray Lai, executive director of the McLean County Regional Planning Commission, told the McLean County Board on Feb. (presentation date not specified) that a federally funded planning effort aims to redesign a 10-mile stretch of Veterans Parkway to improve safety and multimodal access.
Lai said the project is funded through a RAISE planning grant and is estimated at about $675,000 in total, with a federal planning award of $100,000 and the remainder provided by local and state partners. "It's to have a safe, accessible transportation corridor, to come accommodate all vehicles, whether it's trucks or your own personal vehicles, all kinds, pedestrians, bicyclists, and and public transit," Lai told the board.
The planning area, Lai said, covers roughly 10 miles between two interchanges (the presentation referenced "255" at the north end and the southwest end) and will be carried out in four phases over about two years, with completion targeted for August or September 2026. The planning team is led by a consultant team (named in the presentation as T.Y. Lin) and guided by a 19-member project steering committee representing governments, businesses and other stakeholders.
Lai described an outreach-heavy approach: public surveys in English and Spanish (the team reported more than 540 responses to date), an interactive online engagement map, business interviews, focus groups, "coffee talks," outreach to underrepresented groups and in-person canvassing at events such as a winter farmers market. He also said Connect Transit is distributing flyers on buses and that hard-copy or phone-assisted survey completion can be provided for residents who lack internet access.
Participants in consultant-led focus groups and interviews flagged recurring concerns and opportunities: speed, safety, multimodal connections, nature and beautification, Lai said. The consultants will develop alternatives in Phase 3 and recommend a preferred alternative and an action plan in Phase 4, which will include strategies and implementation steps. Lai emphasized that the completed plan does not itself fund construction: "When the plan is done, it doesn't mean there's money available right there to start construction the next day. But planning is the first step, and we'll continue the work for the construction," he said.
The presentation also noted safety problems on the corridor, including clusters of crashes that have resulted in injuries and fatalities over the years. Lai said some residents and workers currently walk or bicycle along the corridor despite minimal sidewalks and few transit stops, and the plan intends to address those accessibility and safety gaps.
Board members were invited to help spread the survey and to request hard copies for constituents; Lai said staff can complete surveys by phone if necessary. The presentation included a call for ongoing engagement as the project moves into corridor alternative analysis in March and toward the recommended alternative later in the process.
