The number of wayward motorists using the Oakbrook Terrace City Hall parking lot to change directions on Butterfield Road after taking the wrong exit off Ill. Hwy. 83 a half-mile east could be cut by 75 percent by next spring.
That`s when the Illinois Department of Transportation will install new exit signs on Ill. 83 at the three-way interchange with Butterfield and Roosevelt Roads, Oakbrook Terrace Mayor Richard Sarallo said Tuesday.
”It`s not as bad as the spaghetti bowl in the city (of Chicago), but it is pretty confusing,” Sarallo said of the tangled web of ramps linking the three state routes on the northeast corner of Oakbrook Terrace. ”When you`re moving along at 40 or 50 miles per hour, those exits come up on you pretty fast.”
A $2.27 million contract was awarded by IDOT this week to J.F. Edwards Construction Co., Geneseo, to install nine overhead signs, five cantilevered signs and improved lighting at the interchange.
”This should help to clarify everything,” said company president John Edwards. The new signage is the result of 1 1/2 years of lobbying by Oakbrook Terrace, Sarallo said. Motorists who had taken the incorrect exit often caused traffic snarls on Butterfield Road while turning their vehicles around, he said.
Since Ill. 83 was being widened anyway to three lanes in each direction from 16th Street to St. Charles Road, officials decided to replace the old, inadequate signs with new and improved signs, said Ralph Kingsbury, IDOT area programmer for Du Page County.
The signs will be erected over the winter and the lighting will be installed next spring, Kingsbury said.
