Farmers Weekly Review

By Nick Reiher

Will County will be off the hook for improvements at Manhattan-Arsenal Road and Illinois 53 as officials heard the state will be rolling it into its comprehensive Illinois 53 construction plan.

The Illinois Department of Transportation agreed to take over the project, Jeff Ronaldson, Will County Transportation Director, told members of the County Board’s Public Works and Transportation Committee at its January 7 meeting.

That will save the county an estimated $1.7 million projected to cost for widening and adding left-turn lanes on Manhattan-Arsenal Road in both directions at Illinois 53.

Ronaldson said the project is a few years out, but likely the state would include traffic lights on Manhattan-Arsenal Road, as they usually do in such cases.

The committee initially heard of the issue in September, when Matt Walsh, Jackson Township Highway Commissioner, said residents have been concerned traffic backups from drivers turning left onto Illinois 53 from Arsenal and/or Manhattan Road.

Those cars block the intersection, leading some drivers to use the shoulder to go around them.

The issue at that intersection received the third-most comments at an April public hearing on extensive plans to improve Illinois 53 from Doris Avenue to North River Road in Wilmington. While IDOT has jurisdiction over Illinois 53, the county has rights to Manhattan and Arsenal roads.

Although residents have said the current configuration has caused many head-on collisions, Ronaldson said he found only one such accident there in the past five years, that occurring in 2021.

Ronaldson also told the committee he set up cameras at the intersection to monitor the issues brought up by the public. He said he has asked the Illinois Department of Transportation if signals on Manhattan and Arsenal roads can be re-timed so drivers turning left aren’t blocking the roadway. He hasn’t received a response.

IDOT installed stoplights at left-turn lanes at the intersection, and plans to put in a right-turn, deceleration lane from southbound Illinois 53 to westbound Arsenal Road.

“I don’t know why they didn’t just put in left-turn lanes (on Manhattan-Arsenal Road) when they put the signals in,” Walsh told the committee in September. He and Ronaldson expect the issue to get worse there as NorthPoint continues to build warehouses.

Ronaldson said one of the issues at that time was a concern whether a turn lane could be added on the bridge on Manhattan Road just east of Illinois 53. He has since learned it can accommodate an additional lane. He said at the recent meeting the widening will not affect the bridge.

Before the state took over the project, the committee last year had authorized Ronaldson to put together a study and solicit companies for engineering work.

Ronaldson said following the recent meeting that the county might have gotten to the project sooner than the state. But IDOT officials still would have had to approve the county project.

Nick Reiher is editor of Farmers Weekly Review.