By Karen Haave
Monee Mayor Therese Bogs has asked her board of trustees to consider creating a four-way stop on the busy intersection at Ridgeland Avenue and Bruns Road. The intersection currently is a two-way stop going east and west.
“Over time, this intersection has become more hazardous,” she said during the New Business segment of the board’s September 11 meeting. “Amazon traffic has discovered this back road, and it is traveled north and south much more frequently.
For those familiar with traveling this road, Ridgeland is a long, open stretch, so speeding is common. The lane markings at that intersection don’t exactly line up, either, so you’ve got speeding and now swerving a little bit.
“I’ve had residents complain to me about the intersection, and I’ve had my own run-in with trying to head northbound from Bruns onto Ridgeland and somebody was passing,” Dr. Bogs continued.
“It’s double-lined, but somebody was passing a truck. If I was not paying attention and going as slowly as I was, it would not have been pretty. Then you add the usual hard-to-see with the utility pole, and winter with snow, ice, and drifting snow, to me it only makes sense from a public safety point to add a north-south stop also.”
Trustee John Henson asked what the speed limit is for that area. Bogs replied that it ranges from 35 to 45 mph.
Trustee Chuck Rakis asked if the road would need to be realigned “all the way down.”
“It’s weird,” Bogs noted, “because it’s the one section. You get to the intersection and the line, so it’s not huge, but it’s enough, especially when you’re going fast enough and not paying attention. And, I don’t know, it could stand to be repaved also (and) striped.”
Village Attorney Larry Gryczewski said he would prepare an ordinance for the board’s next meeting on September 25.