A top village official says the adjustments are working well. Some residents feel otherwise.
CLARENDON HILLS, IL – A top Clarendon Hills official says changes at a key intersection are working well, but some residents disagree.
In late August, the village completed a project that made Chicago and Norfolk avenues a four-way stop.
The town also eliminated a median – what one resident called a "cute triangle" – between the two legs of Norfolk connecting to Chicago Avenue.
Clarendon Hills officials said they made the changes because of the number of crashes at the intersection.
In response to a Patch inquiry, Paul Dalen, the village's acting manager, said last week that with the recent changes, the intersection is working well.
One crash has occurred since the changes. A car stopped at the intersection was rear-ended by another in September, Dalen said.
In a memo earlier this year, the village said 31 crashes had occurred at the intersection between 2018 and 2024. Nearly half were because of a failure to yield.
Through a resident's public records request, the village provided emails criticizing the changes. The residents' names were blacked out.
Some of the residents referred to a preliminary analysis by the village's engineer, Christopher Burke Engineering, a couple of years ago. The firm stated that nothing stood out as a needed improvement at the intersection.
"Why are we making a major collector street (Chicago Ave.) stop right after they cross over the bridge and just before a traffic light (and vice versa)?" a resident said. "Now, this intersection is obviously more dangerous and uninviting."
"People are complaining about how confusing this giant expanse of cement now is at Norfolk and Chicago Avenue," another resident said. "Why was this done, and will there be lines on the road to direct people?"
Last month, Brendan McLaughlin, the village's public works director, emailed a resident who was concerned that a speed radar sign near the intersection blocked one of the new stop signs on Chicago Avenue.
He said the village would remove the radar sign and move a school speed limit sign away from the stop sign to give drivers a more unobstructed view.
"We have also asked our traffic engineer to perform a site visit after these changes are made to see if there is anything else that can be done to improve driver compliance with that stop sign," McLaughlin said.
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