Batavia committee recommends Kirk left-turn ban

A concrete median will likely be installed on Kirk Road in Batavia to prevent drivers from making left turns at Chillem Drive and Giese Road.

The Batavia city services committee recommended using barriers to ban turns Tuesday night. The Batavia City Council will vote on the matter Aug. 20.

Kane County would pay for the median, City Administrator Bill McGrath said. It is expected to cost about $120,000, if the project also includes installing concrete “pork chop” channelization devices where the streets meet Kirk. Those may not be needed, however.

Giese and Chillem feed neighborhoods on Batavia’s east side. A resident asked the city last year to do something to make it safer for residents to turn in to the neighborhoods from northbound Kirk Road. People have been hit from behind, at high speeds, as they are turning, waiting for the driver in front of them to turn, or swerving to the right-hand lane to avoid hitting a stopped car. Residents suggested adding a center turn lane or banning turns at certain times of the day.

Kirk is a county highway, so the city asked the county to investigate options. Batavia police also reviewed accident data, and found that from 2009 to 2011, 16 of 23 crashes were rear-end, and most were categorized as “serious.”

A county engineer’s report states that the number of accidents at Chillem and Giese is high for the volume of traffic there. But adding spending $1 million to widen Kirk to add a turn lane at Giese isn’t warranted, according to its cost-benefit analysis.

Banning the turns will force residents to use Wind Energy Pass or Pine Street, which have signals and left-turn bays. The county will lengthen turn-arrow times on Kirk to reduce the anticipated traffic backups.