Oswego Public Attends Meeting On Washington Street Improvements

OSWEGO, IL — After a traffic accident claimed a pedestrian's life last year, a concern that had been on the back of village officials' minds for some time was suddenly pushed to the front: improving the safety of U.S. Route 34 - Washington Street - as it passes through town. On Wednesday Dec. 11, village officials invited the public to review the headway that had been made on the issue.

"This has been an issue in Osweo for over 20 years, so there's a long history of trying to make improvements to Washington Street to make safer pedestrian crossings," Village Administrator Daniel Di Santo said. "particularly at Main Street but also down on Harrison Street."

Di Santo added that the long-brewing concerns over the route's intersections in town only intensified in 2018. It was only after the fatal accident last Fall, he said, that the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDoT) began to take the matter seriously.

"Over the years... we've asked IDoT to install traffic signals and they've not been willing to because there aren't enough pedestrians crossing for them to warrant traffic signals," he said. "But now we've gone down and shown them the data that people are getting hit... and they basically told us, 'okay, you've got our attention.'"

To keep that attention, Di Santo said, village officials - along with engineers from Christopher Burke Engineering that the village hired - have reviewed Washington Street crossings, analyzed its hazards, and proposed changes to make it safer. There are both short and long-term proposals, which if implemented could be funded by municipal and state funds, respectively. One possible short-term safety improvement would be to install speed signs and radar along the route, alerting drivers to their speed. The long-term proposal Di Santo said he favored would be the installation of several new traffic lights.

"The ultimate solution is going to be traffic signals, but in the meantime, short-term, we can do a lot of things that don't cost a lot of money." he said.

The safety study is still ongoing, but Di Santo said those short term improvements could be ready for installation very soon.

"In the next couple of months, we could start putting in a lot of those; re-painting pedestrian crossings in the sidewalks, adding permanent signs that tell you your speed," he said.

Village and Burke analysts were not the only ones to offer their ideas. Young members of the Oswego Community School District 308 Robotics Program also took on the problem, suggesting everything from rumble strips at intersections to pressure plates that pedestrians could step on to light up crosswalks. As the 4th-7th grade roboticists discussed their ideas with local experts, the two teachers who led the program - Elaine Diveley and Dan Olandese - beamed over their pupils' efforts.

"It was our first year doing the program, we had seven teams, and this particular team... identified safety concerns downtown with pedestrians, so then they had to design a solution to the problem." Olandese said. "They created a model to bring to competition... Our competition was Saturday, but they had an opportunity to come out today even after their season is over and talk about this; it's really cool to see them come out after school still and do this."

"They came up with a very similar solution to what the city came up with," Diveley added.