Progress continues on getting stoplight where Waubonsee students died in 2010
Getting a traffic light at the north entrance to Waubonsee Community College's Sugar Grove campus, where two students were killed moved forward Wednesday night.
The college's trustees agreed to give a strip of right of way along Route 47 to the Illinois Department of Transportation. And it hired a firm, for $123,217, to do the third, final phase of engineering for the installation of the light.
But the college still needs to acquire some land for rights of way on the western legs of the intersection, from private owners.
Once that happens and the engineering is finished, then bids can be sought for construction.
Executive Vice President of Finance and Operations David Quillen told the board the college is “trying to maintain an aggressive schedule” to get the light in before the end of the year.
In 2010, after the deadly crash, the college estimated a signal would cost $1 million and applied for federal funding.
The college had asked IDOT for permission to install a signal in 2006, when a signal was installed at the college's southern entrance. IDOT said “no.” But the agency agreed in 2010 that student enrollment and traffic counts had increased to a point a signal was warranted.
North Aurora residents Ryan Sherrod, 18, and Brandon Utley, 19, were killed April 14, 2010, when Sherrod turned left into the northern entrance to WCC and was hit by a northbound garbage truck. The speed limit on Route 47 is 55 mph.
College officials had asked the state before and after the crash to lower the speed limit, but IDOT has refused.