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Post Office Relocation Creates Traffic Concerns For Bloomington

U.S. Postal Service Processing Facility
Eric Stock
/
WGLT
The U.S. Postal Service Processing Facility sits next to an easily congested intersection at Empire Street and Fairway Drive.

Bloomington is asking the federal government to consider ways to ease traffic congestion where the post office is relocating.

Access to the U.S. Postal Service processing facility off Empire and Fairway Drive is restricted, with a raised median preventing left turns. That’s where the Postal Service plans to move the Eagle Station on Towanda Avenue by August 2019.

Bloomington Transportation Commission Chairman Michael Gorman said he's concerned the increased traffic will create problems at the intersection, as there were when the post office was there before.

“We’ve heard from other people who do remember it and certainly their memories are visceral and not positive,” Gorman said.

The post office last moved from that site in 1999.

The commission has approved sending a letter to the postal service with recommendations to ease congestion, including turning the frontage road into a cul-de-sac to keep drivers from trying to access Fairway, where there's a raised median in the intersection with Empire.

“Depending on what ends up being proposed, it could be as simple as putting down some additional paint on the road or it could be a more complicated reconstruction process,” Gorman said. “We really don’t know at this point, so much is up in the air.”

Gorman added much of the land around the postal facility is owned by CBL Properties, which owns Eastland Mall. He said the city expected the postal service to stay in close contact with the company because its traffic patterns will impact mall traffic.

“I think the federal government gets a bad rap, but they are a community partner here,” Gorman said. “I think they want to be good partners just like anybody else.”

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Eric Stock is the News Director at WGLT. You can contact Eric at ejstoc1@ilstu.edu.
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