Franklin Avenue Improvement Project
Challenge:
Franklin Avenue serves as a main route supporting local businesses of the Village of Franklin Park. With the future plans of Elgin O’Hare Western Access Project, Franklin Avenue is expected to see an increase in traffic, therefore making this project a priority for the Village. While this area is mostly industrial, the project area reaches several neighborhoods in the Village. Our challenge was to develop a public outreach strategy that would keep Village resident informed of the impacts that they would experience as a result of the project.
Solution:
Our priority for this project was to develop versatile resources and implement a plan that would keep stakeholders, residents and elected officials informed of the project benefits and other key impact information.
We worked closely with the Village to identify key stakeholders who would be most impacted by the project in order to foster communication and collaboration. Our team ensured inclusive education and notification of the project by producing several collateral items including mailers, posters, newspaper advertisements and letters that were used to inform over 400 identified stakeholders and invite them to the public meetings.
Two public information meetings were planned and managed to effectively educate the public and gather public opinion. Our team designed exhibit boards, fact sheets, name badges, sign-in sheets and additional informational items to aid in the success of the meeting. We facilitated comment tables to encourage attendees to provide feedback for the project team.
Result:
Our outreach strategy resulted in the regular attendance of key stakeholders, business owners, and Franklin Park residents, at public information meetings. Participants were provided the opportunity to learn about the project and contribute valuable written feedback that is included in the official project record.
This project was recently awarded the ACEC Engineering Excellence Special Achievement Award. This award is given for those projects worthy of special recognition for achieving engineering excellence.
