Rockford, IL
Let’s remove the Whitman Interchange and open up this 25-acre area for residential and commercial development. It would be replaced with a standard street system that would connect the existing neighborhoods with downtown, Madison Street, the Riverfront, The YMCA, Sinnissippi Path, Sinnissippi Park, and Nicholas Conservatory. Walkers, bicyclists and cars would all have easy access to and from the Riverfront making all of these areas more attractive and valuable.
Comments
Great article in Sundays Opinion section, thanks! This is a great opportunity to reconnect those neighborhoods and create a safer environment. I know the city has done many studies, are you aware of any that have been done in the past or ones underway?
Replacing the current Whitman Street Interchange design to a more traditional street grid will improve neighborhood accessibility to the river and east-west transportation movements; it will improve public safety by reducing travel times to Swedish American Hospital; and it will improve economic opportunity by reclaiming approximately 25 acres of land for redevelopment.
I think the article is a good one, and I never thought of it the wa you described, or the video showed. I think if the county, or state went this direction they would need to consider the bigger impact of the other roads, such as IL 251, US20, charles Street, and what ever north of I39 was to come. It looks like they had a plan to connect downtown, but it fell apart like you stated with no action.
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Whitman Street Interchange Project
Rockford, IL
Description:
Let’s remove the Whitman Interchange and open up this 25-acre area for residential and commercial development. It would be replaced with a standard street system that would connect the existing neighborhoods with downtown, Madison Street, the Riverfront, The YMCA, Sinnissippi Path, Sinnissippi Park, and Nicholas Conservatory. Walkers, bicyclists and cars would all have easy access to and from the Riverfront making all of these areas more attractive and valuable.
I think you have to address the one ways to properly address the interchange. Traffic has changed in the decades since the one ways were put in and the interchange. Could 3rd street be 2 way to carry 251 traffic? 6th and 9th went to locations with high numbers of jobs which no longer exist. If 6th was 2 way to carry the traffic to that area and remove 9th north of State Street, allowing the normal grid to retake that area and connect longwood with the neighborhood.
Great article in Sundays Opinion section, thanks! This is a great opportunity to reconnect those neighborhoods and create a safer environment. I know the city has done many studies, are you aware of any that have been done in the past or ones underway?
Replacing the current Whitman Street Interchange design to a more traditional street grid will improve neighborhood accessibility to the river and east-west transportation movements; it will improve public safety by reducing travel times to Swedish American Hospital; and it will improve economic opportunity by reclaiming approximately 25 acres of land for redevelopment.
I think the article is a good one, and I never thought of it the wa you described, or the video showed. I think if the county, or state went this direction they would need to consider the bigger impact of the other roads, such as IL 251, US20, charles Street, and what ever north of I39 was to come. It looks like they had a plan to connect downtown, but it fell apart like you stated with no action.
I think you have to address the one ways to properly address the interchange. Traffic has changed in the decades since the one ways were put in and the interchange. Could 3rd street be 2 way to carry 251 traffic? 6th and 9th went to locations with high numbers of jobs which no longer exist. If 6th was 2 way to carry the traffic to that area and remove 9th north of State Street, allowing the normal grid to retake that area and connect longwood with the neighborhood.