Part Of 167th Street Will Close For Pedestrian Tunnel Construction

HOMER GLEN, IL — Part of 167th Street in Homer Township will close for 30 days, starting July 5, to allow for work on a new section of the Veterans Memorial Trail, according to a release from the Forest Preserve District of Will County.

The closure will be located where the path and the road intersect with Interstate 355. Detour signs will be posted, the preserve said.

The work is part of a 3.5-mile addition to the Veterans Memorial Trail that will travel north from Spring Creek Greenway Trail in Hadley Valley to connect with a state-owned trail along 159th Street in Lockport, according to the preserve.

The closure is required to allow contractors to build a pedestrian tunnel under the street.

A pedestrian tunnel was also recently finished under Bruce Road. The tunnel opened June 28, the preserve said.

While the pedestrian tunnel is being constructed, contractors will start paving the portion of the new path that runs from the Spring Creek Greenway Trail in Hadley Valley to 167th Street, the preserve said.

Surveying and vegetation removal for the Veterans Memorial Trail work began in October 2021. Construction began this spring. This portion of the Veterans Memorial Trail is tentatively scheduled to be completed in October, the preserve said.

Eventually, construction will extend the path north from 159th Street to 135th Street in Romeoville, the preserve said. That planned path would connect to the existing section of Veterans Memorial Trail that begins at 135th Street in Romeoville, where it overlaps Centennial Trail, and travels north 3.26 miles to I-355.

At I-355, Centennial Trail splits off and heads east into Cook County. Veterans Memorial Trail continues 1.47 miles north through Lemont to Internationale Parkway in Woodridge, the preserve said.