Familiar places make Naperville's most dangerous intersections

Route 59 is once again the common link in many of Naperville's traffic accidents, playing a prominent role in five of the city's 10 most dangerous intersections.

The city recently released its crash data for 2007, listing the most crash-prone intersections.

"Sometimes it's hard to attribute any specific factor to yearly fluctuations, but generally we see the same trend in the top 10. Most of these intersections are pretty much the same as last year," said Andy Hynes, project engineer with the city's transportation, engineering and development department.

Route 59 and North Aurora Road retained its infamous title as most dangerous with 85 crashes, although that was down from 95 last year.

"Route 59 is a strategic regional arterial through our area and has the most volume of any road in our area ... and we have an intersection that is constrained in terms of capacity so that's probably a contributing factor through there," Hynes said.

He estimates about 75,000 vehicles travel through the intersection daily. Widening the road has long been on the city's wish list, but doing so will necessitate millions in state dollars that are tied up in state legislature gridlock.

In the meantime, Route 59 and North Aurora Road is Naperville's first intersection to get red light cameras and Hynes said the city is hoping they will make a dent in the number of crashes in future years. The cameras could be operational next month.

Coming in second place on the crash list is Route 59 and Diehl Road, which had 74 crashes in 2007, up from 68. The intersection is also within the scope of proposed widening projects.

Other Route 59 intersections making the list are Route 59 and 95th Street, with 63 crashes; Route 59 and 111th Street with 55 accidents; and Route 59 and the Reagan Memorial Tollway with 53.

Route 59 and 111th potentially could see future improvements. The city is about to start an engineering study on the western portion of the intersection, according to Hynes.

One that was recently improved was the intersection of Ogden Avenue, North Aurora Road and Raymond Drive. It was the site of 73 crashes last year but that figure could be on its way down.

"Back about a year ago we worked with the state to install a protected northbound left turn there so we're hoping that yields some safety improvements when we get the 2008 numbers," Hynes said.

Looking years into the future, he said the city would like to make improvements to the Ogden corridor from Raymond to Route 59.

While the top 10 doesn't change much from year to year, some intersections did at least see a significant reduction in crashes. The biggest drop of the 10 was 75th Street and Naper Boulevard, which had 44 crashes, down from 63.

Hynes said the road was resurfaced just south of the intersection in the summer of 2007 and the construction speed limits may have lowered the number of accidents.

Another notorious 75th Street intersection, at Washington Street, is tied for fourth on the list with 63 crashes. Like Route 59, the issue is road capacity. An estimated 65,000 vehicles pass through the intersection daily.

Naperville and DuPage County plan to add an additional through lane of traffic in each direction as well as left and right turn lanes. A groundbreaking ceremony for the project is scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 17.