After waiting a year for approval from the Illinois Department of Transportation, River Forest officials voted at the August 12 town council meeting to install permanent barriers on Harlem Avenue at the corner of Greenfield and LeMoyne streets.
The barriers will replace temporary barriers that 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 approval from IDOT because Harlem is a state highway.
Officials unanimously approved a $148,921.50 contract with Schroeder Asphalt Services of Marengo to complete the project.
Schroeder’s bid was the lowest of five bids submitted. Bids were also received from Orange Crush LLC, M&J Asphalt Paving Co., JA Johnson Paving Co. and A Lamp Concrete Contractors Inc. The highest bid was $186,007.25.
According to Matt Walsh, town administrator, work is scheduled to begin in the first week of September and be completed by October 1.
Bill Koclanis, civil engineering technician, recommended approval of the contract, saying in a memo to Walsh that Schroeder had worked for the township before and “did a good job.”
When officials voted in August 2023 to remove the temporary barriers and install permanent islands with entry and exit restrictions, it marked the end of months of discussion over controversial traffic control changes affecting drivers and residents of the northeastern part of the village. Those changes, which affected Bonnie Brae Place, Clinton Place and William Street in addition to LeMoyne and Greenfield, were intended to address concerns raised at Traffic and Safety Commission and Village Council meetings about through traffic from Harlem and North Avenues.
The changes ranged from creating dead-ends on Bonnie Brae and Clinton to adding and moving stop signs at several intersections. The reconstructions originally converted sections of Greenfield and LeMoyne into one-way streets heading east from the alleys west of Harlem into Harlem, but those changes were later reversed.
Beginning in October 2022 and continuing for months, at meetings of the Town Council and the Traffic and Safety Committee, residents and business owners raised concerns about an increase in traffic in the alleys, a general increase in traffic, greater difficulty getting to and from their homes, cars speeding, and drivers ignoring stop signs and bypassing barriers designed to create dead-ends.
Several people suggested adding additional stop signs and installing speed bumps or speed humps as alternatives to the changes.
North Avenue business owners said the changes would impact access for their patients and customers, making it difficult to navigate the streets and find legal parking.
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