Controversial plan to widen Naperville intersection on hold
A proposed intersection expansion in south Naperville that riled neighbors is on hold while the city awaits its next chance to seek potential grant funding.
The idea is to widen Book Road and 95th Street by adding an extra lane of Book both north and south through the intersection and by creating dedicated right-turn lanes at all four corners.
The plan is the most extensive - and expensive - of three options a consultant devised last year, and it's the one favored by the city's transportation department as a way to improve safety at the crossing not far from Neuqua Valley High School.
The city sought federal funding from the Highway Safety Improvement Program to cover up to 90 percent of the estimated $2.4 million cost. But staff members were notified late last month that the project was not chosen to receive any money.
So instead of proceeding and finding other funds, Bill Novack, director of transportation, engineering and development, said the city will delay the project, gather more resident input and seek money again in 2022 from the federal Surface Transportation Program.
"We're just taking a pause because the next possible funding we could get is a couple years down the road," Novack said.
The break is welcome news to nearby residents, who said they feared such a large-scale expansion of Book and 95th would only make conditions more dangerous.
The intersection saw 114 crashes between 2013 and 2017, which is nearly three times the expected number at similar intersections across the state, project manager Kelly Dunne said in a memo.
But nearby residents questioned the vagueness of the comparison, pointed out that some crashes came at business driveways instead of in the intersection itself, and said they don't believe Book and 95th is unduly hazardous.
"There was not any proven safety issue at Book and 95th," said Cathy Verdone, who lives just north of 95th at Book and Joyce Lane.
Yes, there is congestion at times, Verdone said - especially in the afternoons when school lets out. But things have been improving after a nearby construction project to the east at 95th Street and Plainfield/Naperville Road wrapped up, she said.
"We've noticed a decline in the traffic and the backup," Verdone said. "We were proposing, 'Can we give it a year or two before even beginning to attempt to revisit this?'"
Novack said the city's next step will be to schedule a meeting with residents, likely sometime this winter, to discuss intersection options.
Aside from the proposed expansion plan, consultants also offered the idea of adding new north-south lanes on Book, but only building two right-turn lanes - a southbound lane on Book and an eastbound lane on 95th; or the idea of skipping the through lanes and building only the two right-turn lanes. These options would cost an estimated $2.2 million or $1.2 million, respectively.
Novack said city staff members will be sure to heavily publicize the next informational meeting, after some residents told the city council this summer they were unaware of meetings in May and September 2018, as well as this June, in which they could have heard details about the plans.
"It sounds like going forward, they're going to try to include more directly affected resident involvement," Verdone said, "which is going to be a good thing."