Route 31 lane reduction back for more talk in Geneva
If Geneva wants to put Route 31 on a "road diet" - reducing it from four lanes to three - it is going to have to do so farther south than city officials had hoped.
According to a report to be given to the city council Monday, the Illinois Department of Transportation says the reduction from four through lanes to two through lanes and a center turn lane would have to start near the entrance to the Fabyan Forest Preserve on the south end.
Geneva officials had hoped to start the taper farther north, to avoid affecting several businesses on the west side of the road, including Riverbank Laboratories and an office complex.
The properties owners had asked that of the city council in February.
The city wants the state to reduce the number of lanes, believing it will decrease sideswipe crashes. The lanes on the stretch of Route 31 south of Elizabeth Place are several feet narrower than what state law now requires.
The state is repaving Route 31 this spring and summer from Third Street south to Main Street in Batavia.
The changes to the road were proposed by residents of a neighborhood west of Route 31, who wanted to obtain a way for bicyclists to connect to the Fox River, by installing either a bicycle path or bicycle lanes. They paid for a study of the roadway, which determined the road was too narrow to accommodate bike lanes. It should be at least 40 feet wide, but 80 percent of it is less than 37 feet wide, and in some spots it is only 35 feet wide.
The council meets at 7 p.m. Monday at City Hall, 109 James St.