Starting next week a contractor for the City of Evanston will be making pedestrian safety improvements at the intersection of Emerson Street and Green Bay Road.
The work will include tightening the turning radius at the intersection and moving the pedestrian crossing on Green Bay Road closer to the intersection with Emerson. In addition, the lanes on Green Bay will be realigned and the pedestrian signal post will be relocated closer to the intersection.
The project is funded by the general obligation bond fund and there will be no direct charge to adjacent property owners.
The entire project is expected to be completed by third week of September.
Both streets will remain open to traffic during the construction project. No parking signs will be posted noting the project work schedule.
City officials say the construction activities will create some inconvenience for abutting residents, but workers will attempt to minimize these problems. The work is not anticipated to permanently impact any existing on-street parking in the area.
The contractor for this street improvement is Schroeder & Schroeder Inc., located at 7306 Central Park Ave. in Skokie.
The project is under the supervision of the City of Evanston’s Division of Transportation and the Resident Engineer in the field will be Pankaj Chokshi who will be directly responsible for all aspects of the construction.
Residents with questions can contact the resident engineer at 3-1-1.
When will they put bike lanes at this intersection?
This is one of the most treacherous intersections in the city. A real need here is an extension of the bike lanes from Emerson and Wesley east through this intersection. Also, are they going to put a pedestrian crossing on the south side of Emerson across Green Bay? Or is this just a matter of re-engineering the north crossing? The fact that there is only one pedestrian crossing at this intersection is crazy.
Pedestrian crossing
Finally! Thanks to the City for improving this crossing. We've lived near that intersection for almost 7 years. After the first few attempts to cross there and risking our lives, we crossed it off our list of crossings. I do agree with anonymous that it would also be great to have a crossing on the south side of the intersection. It is crazy and very time-consuming at that location to have to walk three sides of the intersection to cross from the south side of Emerson to the other south side. Maybe a pedestrian-controlled signal? But I'm thankful that at least the existing crossing should be safe enough to use after this work.
Road closure
Will there be any road closure due to this? Will Pace buses still be able to use Greenbay Rd?
Expand project, please
I was very happy to see this on the city website earlier in the week, but then disappointed to see the limited scope of the project.
The Ridge/Green Bay Rd area starting just north of Church Street through this intersection is extremely pedestrian unfriendly. I was just pondering this and considering calling my alderman as I walked back from the farmer's market along the broken concrete sidewalks and jaywalked across the many lanes (6 or 7?) of Ridge south of Emerson.
I prefer to jaywalk that way than to use the crosswalk schedule for change under this project because I never felt safe crossing there — drivers do not anticipate a crosswalk where it now is located after cars turn north from Emerson under the viaduct.
If the corner of Clark and Ridge is really going to get a new development facing Ridge, this stretch of road will have another obvious reason to receive more help to be inviting and pedestrian friendly. (The School Towel Service be made to replace its sidewalk and a crosswalk should be installed at Clark to get to the west side of Ridge.) Perhaps the developer can be asked to contribute, although I know it's generally the other way around these days. If I was to develop that project, however, I would find it essential to get tenants or buyers.
And I certainly agree about bike lanes. I frequently bike south on Ridge or west on Emerson and feel like I'm risking my life just to get from Ridge to just beyond Asbury where the bike lane begins. North of Church Street all the way up to Simpson there is no safe way to get from west Evanston to downtown and Northwestern, and Church Street is not great either. Going west, Davis is the first opportunity south of Simpson, and that's sort of bad, too!
Better than nothing, but this is too little!
The real problem is that there is now dense residential housing on both sides of Ridge.
All up and down Ridge there are inadequate sidewalks and pedestrian crossings. We need a midblock pedestrian bridge so that children can live in this neighborhood and cross safely on their way to school.
Take back Ridge Avenue! It should be only two lanes in both directions, with wide and friendly mixed use bike/pedestrian paths. I prefer enlarging the sidewalks, turning them into mixed use walking/cycling paths. Do this at the expense of vehicles. Eliminate parking on Ridge too … there is lots of it now in downtown Evanston.
Let's keep the drivers from Wilmette, Winnetka, Glencoe, and beyond from using our streets (Ridge, Asbury, etc.) for commuting.
We don't have to provide a thoroughfare for people outside of Evanston to drive through on, because there is an excellent alternative, the Metra Train. It runs a regular and convenient schedule. It's always on time. It's time for drivers to get out of their cars and take the train like we do.
Traffic
Why bother with two-lane Ridge. The traffic will just move to Asbury and side streets.
Kill all the jobs. Then these people will not need their cars to go anywhere.
Really Green!