Springfield, IL (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – One of Springfield’s most crash-prone intersections, MacArthur Boulevard and Lawrence Avenue – should become safer in 2027.

City public works director Dave Fuchs said, “It’s one of the most dangerous two intersections that we have in the city. Most of the problems — not just speeding, although a lot of people think it’s because of the speeding — it’s the left hand turns that everybody’s making. So we’re going to widen Lawrence Avenue beginning at MacArthur, all the way down to Walnut, and then we’ll narrow a little bit on the other side of that.”

The work is to be done during the 2027 construction season.

So what took so long?

“There’s a lot of the folks over there that are devoted to the lovely trees that they have along Lawrence Avenue, and they didn’t want to give them up,” said Fuchs. “So we’ve adjusted the plan several times so there would be fewer threes involved, and we were successful.”

The city is now acquiring land to make room for the widened Lawrence Avenue.