Officials were on hand Wednesday for a groundbreaking ceremony of a new traffic light on Route 50, designed to aid congestion at the intersection for hundreds of employees for one of Kankakee County’s top manufacturing employers, CSL Behring in Bradley.
Among those in attendance were Illinois Department of Transportation Secretary Omer Osman, IDOT District 3 staff, Kankakee County Board Chairman Andrew Wheeler, Kankakee Highway Department Staff, Bourbonnais Mayor Paul Shore and Tim Nugent with the Economic Alliance of Kankakee County and State Representative Lindsay Parkhurst.
Employees were later asked what they thought of the much-needed addition to the facilities that produce plasma and Plasma intermediates made in Kankakee that are used in making albumin and also immunoglobulins. Due to the nature of their jobs, asked to remain anonymous.
“I won’t, because I go the other (via E 3000 Rd) way,” an anonymous CSL employee stated earlier today, “I think it’s taken them way too long to finally put in, but from what I hear it was the state that has been holding it up,” one employee said after being asked what the light met to them.
“I work 3rd (night) shift and I’m about the first person out of that plant each morning. It will defiantly make life a lot easier on tons of people though, mainly 1st (morning) shifts.” says another worker at the company.
CSL Behring recently expanded its size 300,000 square feet in 2017 and cost an estimated $240 million dollars. The entire facility expansion of the surrounding 74 acres could take over a decade to complete.
