Summer is the season of road upgrades and construction, and in DuPage County $36 million total will be spent in 2019.
Traffic Signal Updates
A majority of those funds will go toward traffic signal modernization.
$3.35 million will help expand the county’s Central Signal System, which allows the transportation department to monitor traffic and remotely adjust signals when needed.
“In the old days we would have to send people out to the intersection, put three guys at a truck, one guy to stay with the truck and two guys to try and do this and it would take hours to do the change,” explained Jim Healy, the vice chair of the DuPage County Board Transportation Committee. “There was just no way to immediately do it. Now we can do it from a desk, in Wheaton or in Naperville, and change the intersection to allow people to go quicker.”
The county is adding 84 signals to the system, 12 of which are at Naperville intersections.
75th Street and Naper Boulevard
One major Naperville intersection to get these signal updates is 75th Street and Naper Boulevard.
The $677,000 facelift will also include re-striping to add dual left turn lanes on 75th, which should help decrease the number of accidents on the road.
“Over the last three years, 2013 to 2015, there were roughly 112 accidents at that intersection,” added Healy. “A lot of them were turning accidents and rear end, which are mostly meaning that people are trying to turn left.”
Diehl Road and Winfield Road
Further north of town, dual left turn lanes will also be added to Diehl and Winfield Road for $60,000. Those lanes will also be extended to allow for a longer queue for cars.
91st Street
The city has some road maintenance it’s conducting on its own this summer as well.
“One is the 91st Street improvement project. That is actually slated to begin at the start of May. And that will essentially reconstruct 91st Street between Wolfs Crossing Road and Schoger Drive. It’s going to bring that way up to city standards. So what does that mean? That’s installing curb, sidewalk, city lighting,” said Kate Schultz, the city’s communications specialist.
The 91st Street project will require some detours.
Additional City Roads
Other resurfacing and reconstruction will take place on a portion of River Road, Schuman Boulevard, and Washington Street between Gartner and Osler.
Get Reminders for What’s Coming
The City of Naperville will be sending out reminders for the upcoming road work this summer through Naper Notify, which you can sign up for on the city’s website.
Naperville News 17’s Christine Lena reports.
