Brookfield residents living south of the railroad tracks will need to detour through neighboring Lyons during reconstruction of the BNSF railroad crossing at Hollywood Avenue. Safety concerns prevent left turns onto First Avenue.
Marie Dufek, who lives in the 4800 block of Ogden Avenue, asked during the Monday, June 8, public comment period at the village board meeting about the route residents would take if streets are closed.
Village President Michael Garvey said the village cannot authorize left turns onto First Avenue, and neither the state nor other agencies would approve them.
“I don’t think the state or any other agency would authorize a left turn onto First Avenue for safety reasons,” Garvey said. “So fortunately, it’s not up to us. And even if it was, I don’t think we could safely say that at any time it would be safe to make a left-hand turn off that side street onto First Avenue.”
He acknowledged the inconvenience but said it’s unavoidable.
“It will be inconvenient. It will be a long enough period of time,” Garvey said. “They did reschedule it for us to help with high school students to mitigate the damage, which we did appreciate, but just one of those things that we can’t do anything about.”
Last month, the village asked BNSF to delay work until after the school year.