Batavia to ask state to redesign Route 31 crossing median
Batavia officials are going to ask the Illinois Department of Transportation if it can redesign a proposed median on Route 31 at Houston Street rather than asking the state to drop the plan entirely.
"I kind of feel that we kind of rushed the decision because we thought it was all or nothing," Alderman Lucy Thelin Atac said Monday, about the April 28 recommendation by the council committee of the whole.
She said she learned in the meantime that the state may be amenable to a change, and that it was a city employee who designed the median IDOT planned to build at the city's request.
The median would serve as a spot for bicyclists and pedestrians to stand while waiting for breaks in traffic to continue crossing the state highway.
Atac said the crossing is "key" to bringing bicyclists from the west side of town directly to the Fox River Trail off Houston.
The 55-foot median, as currently designed, would block northbound cars from turning left into one of the driveways to a service station, as well as left turns out of that driveway. It would also block southbound cars from turning left into the parking lot of a store. And it would not align with the sidewalk on the south side of Houston.
Aldermen envision a shorter median, at Houston.
Aldermen said they didn't see the engineering plans for the median until after the service station owner brought the matter to their attention two weeks ago. He found out about it by asking a contractor who was surveying and painting markers for the work.
Mayor Jeff Schielke said IDOT officials are willing to speak with city officials.
Public Works Director Gary Holm cautioned, however, that any change requires IDOT approval, since Route 31 is a state road. "The rest of the project (design) is basically done at this point. Whether they will hold open the contract, I don't know."
The median is part of a plan to install crosswalks and, in some spots, flashing solar-powered beacons, to warn motorists to yield to pedestrians at eight crossings on Routes 25 and 31. Curbs are also being replaced with handicapped-accessible curb cuts. The work has started. Federal money is paying for about 80 percent of the cost. The project was pushed by the Batavia Bicycle Commission.
"I just felt very unsettled that our bike commission has spent so much time making these plans and then we completely threw their plan out the window," Alderman Lisa Clark said.