Work on the intersection, which is adjacent to St. Gerald parish (above) and its school and is used by hundreds of school children and their parents daily, started in early October and was funded with $1.6 million in County funds.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle returned to the intersection of Central Avenue and Southwest Highway in Oak Lawn on May 13 to mark completion of a County-funded road project that will bring safety features to a former traffic hot spot.

Joined by Commissioner John P. Daley (D-Chicago), and local officials, Preckwinkle was able to observe the full scope of work done at the intersection, including adding turn lanes, as well as installing modern traffic signals, pedestrian countdown timers and landscaping.

Central and Southwest Highway were both formerly two lanes at the intersection, which had seen more than 100 crashes over the past decade. The roadway has been widened and now includes left turn lanes on Central.

Work on the intersection, which is adjacent to St. Gerald parish and its school and is used by hundreds of school children and their parents daily,  started in early October and was funded with $1.6 million in County funds.

“This is a quality project completed in a tight time frame and is also an excellent example of a public safety project that grew from multiple levels of government working together,” Preckwinkle said. “It also shows the value of having available capital dollars, allowing us to fund this type of local road project for which funds otherwise might be scarce.”

“I am honored to be here today,” said Daley. “This has been a long time in the making, and I thank President Preckwinkle and Superintendent John Yonan for their leadership and commitment to this project.  With the state of the art improvements made to this intersection it will drastically improve the safety of Oak Lawn citizens and the St. Gerald’s community.”