17th Street extension is great for Belleville drivers. Not so much for the neighborhood.
You might say residents of a historic Belleville neighborhood sacrificed for the greater good when the city turned their dead-end street into a three-lane highway 10 years ago.
Now people in downtown Belleville and Swansea have a quick route to Target, The Home Depot, Belleville West High School and Bicentennial Park.
But increased traffic on 17th Street, which the city widened and connected to Belleville Crossing Street, has caused problems for those who live on the south end of 17th. Cars travel at high rates of speed, and some have plowed through yards, knocked out bushes and hit trees and homes.
“It used to be quiet and peaceful back here,” said Susan Schneider, 66, whose home has been in her family since the 1960s. “Now 18-wheelers are allowed to use this road, and they go 50 miles an hour.”
On a recent evening, Schnieder was commiserating with neighbors Fred Norton and Mary Eros about the accidents, congestion, noise and exhaust fumes that have become part of their daily lives in the 500 block of South 17th.
Last month, a car heading east on Belleville Crossing and South 17th missed a curve, jumped the curb and barreled toward the small, white frame home that Norton has lived in for 24 years. It crashed into the side, putting a 2-by-3-foot hole in his foundation and making a mess of his basement.
“I was sitting right here,” said Norton, 72, pointing to a living-room window. “I heard a big boom, then I walked to the door and looked out. Then I walked around here and saw the car.”
The driver was arrested for being intoxicated, according to Norton, who’s retired from the U.S. Air Force and National Labor Relations Board.
It was the second accident on Norton’s property in eight months. It also was the second claim to his homeowner’s insurance policy, which worries his agent, Kendra McAndrews, of Krys Jacobs Insurance Agency.
“I’m afraid they’re going to cancel him if anything else happens,” she said.
Designed to spur development
The 17th Street Extension was designed to spur development along Illinois 15, southwest of Belleville, by providing an additional route from Frank Scott Parkway West to West Main Street and beyond; and to ease traffic congestion on Frank Scott.
By the time construction began in 2006, the former Oliver C. Joseph Chrysler-Dodge and Wagner Buick-Pontiac-GMC dealerships already had relocated to Illinois 15 and Belleville West Parkway, and developers were buying land for Belleville Crossing shopping center.
“This is going to be a great boost to the whole Illinois 15 corridor, and that’s the key to the future of the whole city,” former Mayor Mark Eckert said when Target and The Home Depot announced plans to build.
South 17th Street residents attended Belleville City Council meetings and voiced opposition to the road project, and two persuaded officials to buy their homes, according to the neighbors. But they felt powerless to change minds given the economic impetus for development.
Workers completed the $10.2 million project in 2012. That seemed to thrill everyone except the South 17th Street residents, some of whom had been forced to sell property through eminent domain.
“I had a huge front yard, and now I have no front yard,” said Eros, 67, a retiree who worked 45 years for Walmart. She lives in her childhood home, which is now more than 15 feet closer to the road than before.
“The speed limit is 25, but they go 75 to 80,” Eros said. “The buses roll along here like you wouldn’t believe. My bedroom is right here. You can’t get any sleep in the morning if it’s a school day.”
Traffic wasn’t nearly as heavy at first, according to the neighbors. It took time for area residents to recognize the convenience of the new route and incorporate into their regular routines.
In recent years, problems have increased.
Norton remembers one impatient driver passing him on the left as he was turning left into his driveway. He’s always worried that someone speeding around the curve will hit him when he’s backing out.
“We do live in a dangerous place,” Schneider said. “I would like to walk at night, but I am genuinely in fear of walking down this street, and there is a full-blown rush hour here when school lets out. They’re lined up one after another.”
Three accidents in eight months
Belleville Police Department officials didn’t return phone calls this month asking for information about the number of accidents, arrests or speeding tickets issued on South 17th Street.
Neighbors listed some of the highlights, starting with an accident in October that involved three properties.
“The cops were chasing a truck, and (the driver) was going too fast to make the curve,” Norton said. “He came up in my yard and took out the handrail and damaged all the bushes. They had to be taken out. One of the wheels came off his vehicle and landed here.”
The other three wheels fell off as the red truck continued northeast through Schneider’s front yard and took out a row of her yew bushes. Then it crossed another neighbor’s corner lot and rolled into his porch.
Last spring, a black truck traveling southwest on South 17th Street crossed two lanes and drove through the corner property before continuing into Schneider’s front yard and hitting her maple tree. The tree survived, but it still has large black scars on the trunk.
Then came the June 28 crash that put a hole in Norton’s foundation. It was the third accident on the block in eight months, convincing neighbors that, at the very least, the city should do a traffic study to identify possible safety measures.
“I’d like to see some kind of barricade down there (at the curve) so the cars can’t get up in my yard,” Norton said.
The South 17th Street residents know they can’t turn back the clock and acknowledge that the new road benefits many people. But they love to reminisce about the old days, when their neighborhood still felt like a neighborhood.
Children played basketball and held parades in the street. Coal trains chugged by on railroad tracks to the south, but not so often that they disrupted the overall peace and quiet.
“I wish I had my dead-end back,” Eros said. “I really do. I love how fast I can get to Target and Home Depot and the west end of Belleville, but the way (cars) roll through here, somebody’s going to get hurt.”
.jpg "IMG-7347 (1).jpg")
.jpeg "IMG-8254 (1).jpeg")
