Nearby residents turn out for Bouse Road Reconstruction meeting

By Charles Bolinger

Editor • At least 25 people, most of them Seasons’ Village residents, attended a public information meeting on July 8 regarding the reconstruction plans for Bouse Road east from Old Troy Road into Troy.

Troy officials hosted the forum at the nearby Father McGivney Catholic High School in Glen Carbon. Troy City Engineer Tom Cissell and Peter Masnica, a project manager with Oates and Associates, led a brief presentation before opening the floor for questions. 

Cissell told the audience it took four years for the city to get the grant funds for the entire project, two years for each phase.

“In phase one, we failed the first time but got it the second year. In phase two, we didn’t get it the first year but we got it the second year,” he explained.

Bouse Road east from Old Troy Road to just past Chamberlain Drive in the Homes of Liberty Place subdivision, is complete. East of Chamberlain, officials said the existing oil-’n-chip pavement is deteriorating, narrow and is not enough for the increasing community demands in the area. More new residential developments have opened and more are planned. The upcoming work divides the rest of Bouse into two phases. 

The scope of work in the first phase covers Bouse from Chamberlain Drive east for 1,200 feet to a point 500 feet beyond the intersection of Bouse and Whitworth Drive. When it’s complete, there will be two, 12-foot-wide driving lanes and four-foot-wide shoulders on each side.

Masnica added that they plan to make the Whitworth and Bouse intersection into a four-way stop to better control speeding on Bouse.

This phase will also include a 10-foot-wide asphalt shared-use path on the north side of Bouse with a high-visibility, stop-controlled crosswalk at Chamberlain. That path will connect to Madison County Transit’s Goshen Trail, which parallels Old Troy Road. The shared-use path, when complete, will be about 2,200-feet-long, between Goshen and Whitworth. Then east of Whitworth, the path will switch to the south side of Bouse as it continues east to and past Tramore. 

This work will improve the driving surface with new pavement; widen travel lanes and add shoulders; and add bicycle and pedestrian accommodations. Short-term road closures for through traffic will be required. Other project improvements call for better drainage swales and a culvert replacement. The project was divided into phases due to budget limitations. 

Questions from residents varied.

One man wanted to know if there were any plans to raise the intersection or other aids to alert drivers to slow down before they cross the Goshen Trail. Cissell said no, not for this project but if a mid-block crossing was involved, he would certainly consider such an option.

Another man asked if they could do anything to improve visibility at Whitworth and Bouse as the corn growing in the summer and into the autumn blocks the view.

“By Illinois law, corn doesn’t count as a sight obstruction; I can’t do anything about that,” Cissell told the man. 

Cissell said the best thing about putting the trail on the north side of the road is that it will add at least 10 feet of space with no corn, which should help.

One woman took the question-and-answer period to applaud the city’s decision to make Whitworth and Bouse intersection a four-way stop.

Another man asked how the project is funded. Cissell said 75% of the monies are from the federal government, he had a grant of $140,000 for the shared-use trail and the remainder of funds, 12-15%, comes from Troy. 

Cissell said they hope to complete the preliminary work and issue a project development report by September. The construction timeline, which is weather-permitting, then starts with acquiring the necessary easements and rights-of-way in early 2027, completing the design in 2027 and construction starting in early 2028. Cissell said it should take about four months to construct the first phase. The second phase of work, which Cissell said will continue improving Bouse Road to Formosa Road and add a shared-use path along Formosa, will happen in 2029 or 2030.