Engineers take 3rd stab at intersection

With little money and even less citizen support for a proposed overhaul of the notoriously dangerous intersection and railroad crossings at Wood Dale and Irving Park roads, local officials have been forced back to the drawing board.

This week, engineers hired by Wood Dale are expected to begin studying a third alternative.

If approved, the plan would consist of smaller fixes that would make the intersection and crossings safer without building a $45 million jug-handle and an underpass.

Officials say they believe the $11.4 million the city received as part of the 2005 federal transportation bill to fund part of a larger intersection overhaul can be spent on less dramatic safety measures.

So far, a village committee has developed several ideas, including upgrading the traffic signals with more modern technology and extending the westbound Front Street bypass by several hundred feet beyond Wood Dale Road. Another suggestion is to install gate guards at the crossings, which would physically prevent cars from driving around the gates.

"Our goal is to come up with yet another alternative that mixes and matches other ideas for the betterment of the city," said Marshall Subach, a former alderman who chairs the intersection committee.

Project manager Matt Rempfer, of CTE engineering firm, said his group would study all of the committee recommendations and decide which would be cost effective and achieve the city's safety goals.

The selected processes then would be presented to the council as "Alternative 3" within the next nine to 12 months.

Rempfer said the study could take less time because of the groundwork laid studying the previous two alternatives.

Once that study is complete, Rempfer said another public hearing would be held before design approval is sought from the state.