Oak Park Avenue Is Almost Back. What's Waiting When the Fences Come Down?

For most of 2026, Oak Park Avenue has meant half-laid brick, caution tape and orange cones. People on foot still pick their way past George's Family Restaurant and Grape Leaves on a path the crews keep open. Crews have worked weekends to stay on schedule, and the project manager called the overlap of electrical work, irrigation, cement and art installation a "well-orchestrated dance," according to Wednesday Journal's October update.

The village projects that the street will reopen by Thanksgiving. The date that matters more to the avenue comes earlier. On Saturday, Nov. 14, the Hemingway District will hand the new pavement to bikes, scooters and strollers for a day. The businesses that held on through the construction year have been waiting for that first wave of returning customers.

The main job was underground

Renew the Avenue started in early March. Its main job was replacing water and sewer infrastructure more than 100 years old, and the new streetscape came second. Wednesday Journal reported that the village engineer and the project manager expect substantial completion of streets and sidewalks by Thanksgiving, at or just under a budget of about $18 million.

"People shouldn't have to think about how their water is delivered and their sewer, where their sewers goes," village engineer Bill McKenna told the paper. "Everything should hopefully work well for our lifetimes."

Each layer of the work covers a different stretch of the avenue, according to the Village of Oak Park's project announcement:

• Water main: mainly Ontario Street to South Boulevard
• Sewer: Ontario Street south to Randolph Street
• Streetscape: Ontario Street to Pleasant Street

The streetscape is the part you'll actually see. The project's construction updates list brick pavers, lighting and landscaping in the final stage, with the avenue closed from Pleasant Street to Lake Street and cross traffic still moving at Lake, North Boulevard, South Boulevard, Pleasant and Randolph.

The corner that changes most is South Boulevard

Much of the work happened underground. The new features above ground cluster at one intersection. Two large art installations are among the most anticipated pieces of the project, and they were still unfinished as of mid-October.

Both were approved in 2024 for the area where Oak Park Avenue meets South Boulevard and the Green Line. Wednesday Journal's 2024 report describes Ray King Studio's "Flame Beacon," an illuminated sculpture about 16 feet tall planned for the southeast corner of South Boulevard and Oak Park Avenue. Its stainless-steel and dichroic-glass forms shift color with your viewing angle and the sunlight, and LEDs inside light it at night.

The second piece, by Graham Carraway, goes under the Green Line viaduct at the same intersection. It combines a mural, aluminum panels, archways lit with colored LEDs, and cutouts.

Put together, the two pieces turn the underpass into lit artwork, with a glowing sculpture beside it. The walk under the tracks has long been the plainest stretch between the Hemingway District and the blocks to the north. Once both are finished, it will be the most designed spot on the avenue.

The 2023 schematic design also sketched plans for Hunter Court: festoon lighting, wall-mounted café seating, movable planters, rain gardens and a "special event" street treatment, plus granite seat walls, charging stations and a bottle-fill station along the corridor. Those drawings show what the village intended at the time, so the finished street may differ in places.

What "by Thanksgiving" covers, and what waits for spring

"Substantial completion" means streets and sidewalks. Some of the work runs past that date, according to the October update:

1. Still to finish before reopening: electrical work for light poles and traffic signals, irrigation, cement work and the two art installations.
2. Likely into the new year: landscaping that needs spring planting.
3. Possible touch-ups: pavement markings, because paint doesn't stick as well in cold weather.

If the avenue looks a little unfinished in December, with bare planting beds and faint lane lines, that's the schedule working as planned.

The businesses that carried the year

A construction season running from March to Thanksgiving lands hardest on the storefronts along the street. George Konstantos told Wednesday Journal that business at George's Family Restaurant, 145 S. Oak Park Ave., has been down about 30% during construction, and that community support has helped keep the restaurant running.

"I grew up with this place, so it means a lot to me," Konstantos said. "I don't want to just close it and walk away."

A couple of doors down, Grape Leaves, the Moroccan restaurant at 129 S. Oak Park Ave., had planned to move into a larger space next door. It has put that move on hold until the avenue reopens, manager Estefania Berroteran told the same Wednesday Journal report. A Sept. 24 village memo says the restaurant is also working on an outdoor patio in the parking lot next to it.

"We just hope that they finish on time and that we can move forward with advertising how nice it looks outside," Berroteran said.

The village did offer grants, but only for exterior upgrades, interior spaces and social media marketing. Lost revenue has to come back the usual way, through people coming through the door. These are some of the businesses on the rebuilt stretch, using addresses from the Renew the Avenue site and the October reporting:

The village memo also lists Hemingway District businesses that village staff checked in with during construction. Among them are Maya Del Sol, Il Vicolo, Cucina Paradiso at 814 North Blvd., Gem Home + Jewelry, Garland Flowers, Heritage Tile and Lively Athletics, which recently came under new ownership. Hemingway District happy hours have kept moving between these storefronts all year, with stops at Cucina Paradiso and Lively Athletics.

Nov. 14 is the one day the new pavement belongs to people on wheels

The Hemingway District timed its celebration for the gap between finished pavement and the return of cars. The event listing for "On the Road Again" runs Saturday, Nov. 14, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. throughout the district, and it puts the invitation plainly:

"Bring your bikes, scooters, rollerblades or skateboards and enjoy the newly paved Oak Park Ave before she reopens!"

The schedule so far, based on the listing:

• Morning: a lineup of classic cars along the avenue, the one part of the event with a set time of day.
• All day: biking and skating on the avenue, live music and entertainment, and family activities for kids.
• Food and shopping: the listing points people to local spots for food and drinks, and to Hemingway District shops for an early start on holiday shopping.

The organizers say more activities and details are still coming, so check the listing again in early November. They describe the day as a chance to "support the businesses that kept going through construction." The classic cars are billed as a morning feature. If you want to see them and also have lunch at George's or browse Dandelion Bookshop, arrive early.

After that, the projected reopening by Thanksgiving brings cars back to a brick street with new lights and two pieces of public art at South Boulevard. Grape Leaves plans to move into its larger space once the avenue is open. For more on the village beyond this corridor, see our Oak Park neighborhood guide.

Oak Park Avenue has been part of our team's daily routes for a long time, and we're looking forward to walking the new bricks with our neighbors on Nov. 14. If you have questions about how the rebuilt avenue fits into life on the blocks around it, the team at Gagliardo Group is happy to talk it through over coffee at one of the cafés that stayed open.