Transportation and Housing Updates

There were a couple positive updates on MCORE construction and dockless bikes in the News-Gazette today.

Stretch of Green Street in Urbana reopens after MCORE work
A stretch of Green Street near campus is reopening to two-way traffic Monday afternoon, a month ahead of schedule, after the latest phase of the Multimodal Corridor Enhancement Project.

The city of Urbana announced that Green between Goodwin and Lincoln avenues would be fully open by 3 p.m., weather permitting...

Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District bus routes are expected to resume after the road is fully open to two-way traffic.

Across town in Champaign, MCORE improvements on Green between Third and Fourth streets, as well as a section of Wright Street, are scheduled to wrap up by Aug. 17.

The construction is part of the four-year, $46.9 million MCORE Project designed to improve Green, Wright and White streets and Armory Avenue. The goal is to balance cars, bikes, and bus traffic, upgrade the infrastructure and improve connections between the UI and the two cities.

The full blurb is available here. And on dockless bikes:

Urbana council gives final approval to dockless bike sharing
Dockless bike sharing will become a reality in Urbana following the Urbana City Council’s approval of an ordinance regulating how the program will operate.

Dockless bike sharing allows the use of rental bike rides after which bikes don’t need to be parked on docking infrastructure.

Back on June 18, the city council approved an intergovernmental agreement with the city of Champaign and the University of Illinois for the program..."

The full article with more details is available here. The same article also noted another item the Council addressed on low income housing:

In other business, the city council certified that Habitat for Humanity meets the requirements to receive federal HOME Investments Partnership Program funding and then awarded $94,468 in federal funds to Habitat for two homes for low income persons...

Community Development Services Director John Schneider said the Urbana City Council was responsible for the votes because it is the lead agency in the Urbana Home Consortium Community Housing Development Organization.