On October 8, a Wednesday Journal photographer caught crews laying brick on Oak Park Avenue. Four days later, the paper photographed pedestrians following a lane of orange cones through the construction zone. The Village's target is a reopened street by Thanksgiving. That date marks the end of a phase, and the project isn't finished then. Several of the best reasons to shop the Hemingway District right now are tied to the construction itself, and they run out within weeks of the reopening. The Avenue's finished look, meanwhile, won't be complete until spring. Between now and late November, the Avenue offers its best value of the year.
The Work Underneath the Bricks
Most of what the project fixed is out of sight. Renew the Avenue began in early March to replace water and sewer lines more than 100 years old. The work had been discussed for well over a decade, and its start had been pushed back since 2021. Village Engineer Bill McKenna summed up the goal for the Wednesday Journal: "People shouldn't have to think about how their water is delivered and their sewer, where their sewers goes. Everything should hopefully work well for our lifetimes."
According to the project's construction updates page, the sewer and water main replacement is done. The remaining work is electrical, pavement restoration, brick pavers and streetscape finishes. In that same Wednesday Journal report, McKenna and Project Manager Brian Racine put "substantial completion" of the streets and sidewalks at Thanksgiving, at or just under a budget of about $18 million. Crews have been working weekends to hold that date. Racine compared the overlapping crews to a "well-orchestrated dance."
Until then, Oak Park Avenue between Pleasant and Lake stays closed to north-south traffic and street parking. Cross traffic still runs on Lake Street, North Boulevard, South Boulevard, Pleasant Street and Randolph Street. The project recommends Ridgeland Avenue as the detour for cars and Harlem Avenue for trucks.
What Arrives by Thanksgiving and What Waits for Spring
"Substantial completion" means you can drive the street and walk the sidewalks. It doesn't mean every piece is in place. The Wednesday Journal reported that landscaping needs spring planting, and that pavement markings may need touch-ups because paint doesn't stick well in cold weather. As of mid-October, the major pieces stood like this:
Feature | What's planned | Status in mid-October 2026 |
|---|---|---|
Brick pavers | Sidewalks, roadway and intersections, done block by block | Being installed |
Lighting and signals | New light poles and traffic signals | Foundations and conduit done from Pleasant to South Boulevard; electrical work still underway |
Trees | 40 new trees replacing 27 that were removed | Spring planting needed |
EV charging | Two public chargers on South Boulevard west of the Avenue, two ports each | Infrastructure work underway |
Railroad viaduct | Illuminated panels with Oak Park-themed art | Union Pacific has repaired the viaduct and elevated railroad |
Two large art installations | Among the project's most anticipated features | Still unfinished |
The trees are the change residents will feel most over the coming years. A project newsletter says the 40 new trees were chosen for hardiness, color and interest across three seasons. Replacing 27 trees with 40 grows the Avenue's canopy by nearly 50 percent. Each tree goes into a five-foot-square pit filled with structural soil and fitted with expandable rings, so the roots and trunk have room to grow. A street that looks finished at Thanksgiving will look noticeably greener once the spring planting is in.
The EV chargers are a smaller but practical addition. The Hemingway District says that once the project is done, the Village will have 17 public chargers across Oak Park.
The Construction Perks and Their End Dates
This part has a deadline. To keep shoppers coming through a year of dust and detours, the Village set up incentives that are tied to construction season. A September 24 memo to the Village Board lays them out.
- Free parking at the Avenue Garage, 720 North Boulevard. Parking is free for 90 minutes Monday through Saturday and all day Sunday. The usual free window is 60 minutes, and the Village Board approved the longer one for February through December 2026.
- Bike to the Biz. Save receipts from four businesses in the district, at least $10 each, and drop them off at the UPS Store. One winner each month gets a $250 voucher for any of Oak Park's three bike shops. The Village pays for the program, and it costs businesses nothing.
- $5 valet from Maya Del Sol. The restaurant runs valet for customers of every business in the Hemingway District. The entrance is in the alley behind St. Edmund's Church, and the fee is a flat $5. Hours are 4 to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 4 to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
- A possible Small Business Saturday discount. The Village is assembling a holiday coupon book that covers all twelve of its business districts. Staff have recommended that Hemingway District businesses that can't afford to offer a discount on their own get Village reimbursement for up to 15 percent off a final bill. The coupons would run November 27 through 30. This was a staff recommendation when the memo was written, so check that it was approved before you plan around it.
Put those dates next to the Thanksgiving target and the window is clear. The 90-minute garage parking is approved only through December. The coupon weekend, if approved, falls on the first weekend after the expected reopening. The construction perks and the new street overlap for only a few weeks.
November 14: The Avenue Before the Cars Come Back
The clearest sign of how close the reopening is comes from the Hemingway District itself. It has scheduled a party on the new pavement before regular traffic returns. "On the Road Again" runs Saturday, November 14, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. According to the event listing, it includes:
- Bike the Avenue. Bring bikes, scooters, rollerblades or skateboards and ride the newly paved Oak Park Avenue before it reopens to traffic.
- Classic cars lined up along the Avenue in the morning.
- Live music and entertainment all day.
- Food, drinks and shopping at district businesses, with an early start on holiday shopping.
- Kids' activities throughout the day, with more details still to be announced.
Rolling down a freshly bricked street with no cars on it happens about once a generation. If you plan to shop that day, it also lines up with Bike to the Biz. Four receipts from one Saturday afternoon fill out a full entry.
The Shops That Stayed Open Through It
The Renew the Avenue team says every store, restaurant and business in the Hemingway District is fully open, reachable from the sidewalk. Owners along the Avenue, including George's Family Restaurant at 145 S. Oak Park Avenue, told the Wednesday Journal that the construction has been hard on business. A few doors away, Grape Leaves, the Moroccan restaurant at 129 S. Oak Park Avenue, told the same paper it aims to move into the larger space next door once the Avenue reopens.
Many owners used the construction year to invest in their spaces. The Village's Renew the Avenue Business Grant Program offers up to $5,000 per storefront in each of three categories: storefront facades, interiors and social media marketing. For the first time in Village history, businesses that don't generate sales tax can apply too. By the September memo, awards totaled $88,808.50 and supported $472,271.31 in improvements across the district. The memo lists these recipients:
- Cucina Paradiso, for its facade
- Color Me Mine and The Wolf Oak Park, for interior work
- Dandelion Bookshop, for its interior and social media
- Village & Vessel and CandyCopia, for social media
- Trade Oak Park, across several programs
- Lively Athletics and Yoga Loft, for facade and interior upgrades
- Dental Care of Oak Park, for its facade
That means several storefronts will look different once the barricades come down, not just the street. The Village has also hired a crew to wash business windows every three to four weeks to deal with construction dust. The final cleaning, which includes awnings, is scheduled for November. For weekly updates, sign up for the project's "Thursday Three" email on the Renew the Avenue website.
Here's the calendar in short. The garage's longer free parking runs through December. The block party is November 14. The street should reopen by Thanksgiving, with a possible coupon weekend November 27 through 30. The trees go in next spring.
By spring, the Avenue will have new brick, new lights and 40 new trees through the heart of Oak Park. If you're curious how projects like this one affect the blocks around them, The Kardosh Collection is happy to talk it through over coffee on the new Avenue. Let's Connect.
