Will County is soliciting community feedback to create a safety action plan designed to make roads safer and reduce crash severity.
This is the first time the county is putting together a safety action plan, which is part of the Safe Travel for All regional initiative by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning.
The program is funded through a $4 million federal grant, a $500,000 grant from the Illinois Department of Transportation and county contributions, said Eric Wesel, project manager with the Will County Division of Transportation.
Officials want to know personal experiences where people who work or travel in Will County don’t feel safe walking, biking or driving. County officials will use accident data to determine problematic roads, but they also recognize there may have been “near misses” not reported to police, so anecdotal information is important, Wesel said.
“Who better to ask where safety concerns are than people who drive on the roads on a daily basis,” said County Board member Joe VanDuyne, a Wilmington Democrat and chair of the Public Works and Transportation Committee.
Residents can drop a pin on an interactive map that shows a potentially dangerous road, intersection, bike path or transit stop. They can also upload a photo to show why it’s dangerous and add comments such as writing the street is not maintained, has poor visibility, lacks lighting or other reasons.
Wesel said the study will flush out if a group is trying to “stuff the ballot box” by getting multiple people to pin a specific location. Likewise, accident data will reveal dangerous areas even if no one pins that location.
The pins can help paint a picture of where drivers are speeding or disobeying traffic laws.
The data will help both the county and individual municipalities update their transportation plans to improve roadways, sidewalks and bike paths, Wesel said.
“Data is only as good as it is acted on,” he said.
Having a plan in place will help both the county and municipalities receive federal and state grants to start an improvement project, Wesel said. The plan is especially important for smaller Will County communities that may not have the staff or resources to put this together, he said. The plan is expected to be completed by the end of 2025.
VanDuyne said residents shouldn’t get frustrated when projects take years to come to fruition, especially transportation improvements in which government has to identify funding and go through a multi-phased engineering process.
“Residents will be heard,” he said.
The Will County Division of Transportation works with a steering committee that includes representatives from school districts, villages, townships, police and fire departments, hospitals and community organizations, Wesel said.
“We want to make sure everybody’s voice is heard,” he said.
The county has also selected four municipal partners to represent a larger geographical area, including Joliet, Romeoville, Peotone and Wilmington.
“Safety is the ultimate goal,” said Jeannine Smith, city administrator for Wilmington. “The overall objective is to reduce traffic accidents and fatalities, enhance traffic flow and reduce congestion.”
Smith said the county has seen an increase in truck traffic and it needs to move freight in a thoughtful manner.
“This is an absolute need in Will County,” she said. “We are a very large trucking community. Warehouses are everywhere. How do you move people through the county on the same routes as trucks.”
Smith said public engagement will help officials receive information they may not already know.
That may lead to innovative solutions, said Romeoville Mayor John Noak, a member of the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning Board representing Will County.
“This is an opportunity to really get everyone engaged at once,” Noak said.
Looking at traffic from a regional perspective also helps residents understand the many jurisdictions involved with maintaining roads, including the state, county, municipalities and townships, he said.
According to the county, traffic fatalities and injuries have increased over the past five years.
“Ensuring safe roads in Will County is a top priority,” executive Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant said in a statement. “This plan will support our efforts to reduce traffic fatalities and injuries, creating a safer transportation network for all roadway users.”
Wesel said they would like no fatal accidents or accidents with serious injuries.
“Any death in a traffic accident is not OK,” he said.
An open house about the project will be held from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 24 at the Ovation Center, 349 S. Weber Road, Romeoville.
To access the safety hotspot map, go to engage.cmap.illinois.gov/will.
Early next year, the group will share its initial ideas to improve road safety and residents can offer their feedback on these solutions. This phase will discuss which safety measures should be prioritized. The plan will continue to be refined into fall 2025.
Wesel said the plan will continue to evolve as population shifts and businesses come and go. Officials will follow up on whether their solutions made an impact years from now.
“It will be a living document,” he said.
Michelle Mullins is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
