After waiting a year for the Illinois Department of Transportation to sign off, the River Forest officials at the Aug. 12 village board meeting voted to install permanent barriers on Harlem Avenue at Greenfield and LeMoyne streets.
The barriers will replace temporary barriers designed to allow drivers on southbound Harlem to turn right onto Greenfield or LeMoyne and allow drivers on eastbound Greenfield and LeMoyne to turn right onto Harlem but prevent them from turning left. Drivers on northbound Harlem are prohibited from turning left onto Greenfield or LeMoyne. The village needed IDOT to sign off because Harlem is a state route.
Officials voted unanimously to approve a $148,921.50 contract with Schroeder Asphalt Services of Marengo to complete the project.
Schroeder’s bid was the lowest of five submitted. Bids also were received from Orange Crush LLC, M&J Asphalt Paving Co., J.A. Johnson Paving Co. and A Lamp Concrete Contractors Inc. The highest bid was $186,007.25.
Work is expected to start the first week of September with Oct. 1 the target for completion, according to Matt Walsh, village administrator.
In recommending approval of the contract, Bill Koclanis, civil engineering technician, said in a memo to Walsh that Schroeder has done work for the village previously and “performed well.”
When officials voted in August 2023 to remove the temporary barriers and install permanent curbed right in-right out islands, it marked the end of a months-long discussion of controversial traffic control changes affecting drivers and residents of the northeast section of the village. Those changes, which affected Bonnie Brae Place, Clinton Place and William Street in addition to LeMoyne and Greenfield, were designed to address concerns raised at meetings of the traffic and safety commission and the village board over cut-through traffic from Harlem and North avenues.
Changes ranged from installing cul-de-sacs on Bonnie Brae and Clinton to adding and moving stop signs at several intersections. Modifications originally converted sections of Greenfield and LeMoyne to one-way eastbound streets from the alleys west of Harlem to Harlem but those changes were later reversed.
Beginning in October 2022 and continuing for months at meetings of the village board and traffic and safety committee, concerns by residents and business owners were raised about an upsurge in traffic in alleys, an overall increase in traffic, increased difficulty in driving to and from their homes, speeding cars and drivers ignoring stop signs and going around barriers designed to create cul-de-sacs.
Several people suggested erecting additional stop signs and installing speed bumps or speed humps as alternatives to the modifications.
Owners of businesses on North Avenue said the changes were impacting access for their patients and customers, making it challenging to navigate streets and difficult to find legal parking.