THE LINCOLN HIGHWAY WILL GO ON A ROAD DIET.

We noted that possibility last summer.  It looks like there is some porkulus money available to make it happen.  The sidewalks along the downtown four blocks or so will be wider.

The reduction of lanes, which will create “five to six feet of sidewalk space” will make downtown DeKalb safer for pedestrians, according to the April 25 City Council agenda. The city has also added “historic lighting, better signage, wider pedestrian-friendly ‘eyebrows’ at the intersections,” to the design.

“What we’re looking at is the possibility of having wider sidewalks on both sides by taking out one of those four lanes and basically splitting it on the north and south side,” City Manager Bill Nicklas said.

The rationale appears to be traffic taming.

Since that time, the city has obtained permission from the Illinois Department of Transportation to move forward with the work, meant to curb speeding truck traffic in the area and encourage more pedestrians, city officials said.

I've been skeptical for some time about that "truck traffic" rationale.  "Apparently keeping federal money coming for the upkeep of state highways, which I understand is one reason DeKalb's main street remains a truck route, is still preferable to providing a truck bypass all the way around town."  On occasion, the city puts extra truck enforcement to work downtown, for a while.

Business interests downtown have long been of the view that their downtown would be a better draw for shoppers if Lincoln Highway didn't look like a truck route.  Apparently that does not go far enough as to come up with some other way of raising maintenance money, which would stop coming from Springfield or Washington if that ceased to be a truck route.

There is no announced day for construction to start.  City officials hope to have the work done by the start of Corn Fest, in late August.  Count me among the skeptics.  It is always the hope that the road work will be done by the time the students return, and there's almost always something still in progress when the students return.