Reinvent Veterans Parkway: Our Community Vision
Project OverviewThe most critical employment and commercial corridor in the region, Veterans Parkway is also the most dangerous road in Bloomington-Normal. In 2024, the McLean County Regional Planning Commission (MCRPC), the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT), and local partners launched a planning study to reinvent and re-envision Veterans Parkway with a Corridor Plan by all and for all, focused on safety, equity, and sustainability. Of particular importance is the safe accommodation of all vehicles, pedestrians, bicyclists, and public transit users. Built in 1941, the 84-year-old Veterans Parkway has grown from a 4-lane bypass to an outdated, car-centric major arterial with 6 to 12 lanes today, carrying the highest traffic volume of any road in the Bloomington-Normal metro area. The current roadway design provides minimal accommodations for pedestrians, cyclists, and transit users. Veterans Parkway also presents a substantial barrier to cross-community access and is the frequent location of serious crashes, including more than 75 life-altering injuries and deaths in the past 10 years. Current ConditionsA comprehensive documentation of existing coordination conditions, needs, and opportunities can be found in the Current Conditions Report and the Opportunities & Needs Report. |
Key Project Dates
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Community Input and Open Houses
Community feedback is critical to help guide the recommendations in the plan. Your input will help shape the future of this essential corridor and how it will provide access to and from shopping, jobs and healthcare in the future. Your input will help the consultant team understand the community’s challenges with the existing parkway, and its desires for a reimagined one.
Between December 2024 and April 2025, the project team deployed a variety of online and in-person engagement opportunities to collect information from the Bloomington-Normal community on existing conditions, challenges, and ideas for the corridor. The objectives were to build project awareness, collect input on key issues and opportunities, and to encourage people to share their ideas for improving Veterans Parkway. Initiatives included three community stakeholder focus groups, pop-ups at community events, nearly 100 drop-in interviews with corridor businesses, and a survey that reached nearly 1,000 responses.
Three Community Open Houses were held in fall 2025 to provide the public an opportunity to review draft initial design alternatives and provide important feedback. A recording of the virtual public open house was posted online following the event.
Virtual Open House Zoom Recording
Passcode: 86^7R31Y
For a complete overview of community input collected so far, please read the Phase 1-2 Engagement Summary Report and Phase 3 Engagement Summary Report.
Frequently Asked Questions
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What is this process for? This is a planning process to reinvent and re-envision Veterans Parkway with a focus on safety, equity, accessibility and sustainability. The goal is to define a new Veterans Parkway to safely accommodate all vehicles, pedestrians, bicyclists, and public transit in the future. McLean County’s current Metropolitan Long-Range Transportation Plan 2050 continues a goal from the 2017 Long-Range Transportation Plan: “Our transportation system will be safe for everyone regardless of where they go or how they get there, as the implementation of Vision Zero takes effect.” Why Plan? Built in 1941, the 84-year-old Veterans Parkway (I-55 Bus./Old U.S. Route 66) has grown from a 4-lane bypass to a major arterial with 6 to12 lanes, carrying the highest traffic volume of any road in the Bloomington-Normal metro area. Today’s Veterans Parkway makes little provision for alternate mobility options, such as public transit, walking and bicycling, creating many challenges for users. In a corridor that combines substantial local employment, heavy commercial uses, residential areas, large corporate campuses, industrial facilities, and a persistent crash history, action is urgently needed. |
What are the community engagement opportunities? We want to hear from all voices! Community-wide engagement within the process will include a series of invited focus group discussions hosted by the MCRPC and the consultant team, “coffee-talks” with the consultant team, as well as a community survey. As the team develops concepts for consideration, public open houses will be hosted to gather community feedback. Steering Committee has been formed, including representatives of local and state governmental agencies, and community members representing users of the roadway, businesses located there, as well as diverse sectors from across Bloomington-Normal area. What is Vision Zero? In Fall 2018 MCRPC joined communities around the country working to end deaths and serious injuries on our streets and highways, with the Vision Zero Action Plan. Vision Zero is a traffic safety project with a clear goal - a transportation system with zero fatalities or serious injuries, which also increases safe, healthy, equitable mobility for all. MCRPC will expand the Action Plan with the aid of a Safe Streets & Roads for All (SS4A) federal grant. |
Contact Us:
To learn more about the project or provide your input, please contact:
Jennifer Sicks, Senior Transportation Planner: [email protected]
Raymond Lai, Executive Director: [email protected]