A Chicago-led sewer project underway along Montrose Avenue is stirring up traffic problems in Harwood Heights, where police are now turning drivers away from residential side streets near the construction area during rush hour periods.
Traffic jams along the side streets near where Montrose Avenue turns into Forest Preserve Drive started back in November when the sewer project began, police said.
The city of Chicago closed Montrose Avenue near Wright College at Narragansett Avenue, but some drivers have been ignoring road closure signs and continuing down the street until they reach a road blockage, police say.
With nowhere else to go, some drivers have been making their own detours down side streets that line Montrose, said Frank Biagi, acting police chief for the village of Harwood Heights.
Months of complaints from residents living along those streets have ensued, leading to a decision by Harwood Heights police to start restricting traffic through those areas to residents only between the 4:30 and 6:30 p.m. weekday rush hour period.
The closures affect Nagle, Natchez, Neenah and Nashville avenues, police said.
“Traffic was becoming gridlocked on our side streets, so we decided to shut them down between those hours,” Biagi said. “We received complaints from our residents who have been unable to get home, and numerous complaints of vehicles that were disregarding the stop signs and going the wrong way down one-way streets.”
Biagi said many drivers taking Montrose Avenue simply ignore the 11 signs posted in the area warning motorists that the road is closed ahead. The signs start at Oak Park Avenue and Forest Preserve and lead all the way to the closure at Narragansett and Montrose.
Motorists who don’t live in the area will be turned away at Forest Preserve Drive and Montrose, and asked to make a U-turn during the rush hour closures.
“Drivers seem to be disregarding the signs and they get to a point on Forest Preserve where there’s nowhere to go but the side streets,” Biagi said. “They begin flooding side streets and causing hazards.”
Police said the closures could continue until the project is completed. The city of Chicago expects work to be finished in June, according to Susan Hofer, spokeswoman for the Department of Transportation.
Harwood Heights taxpayers may have pick up the tab for the extra auxiliary police officers the village is using to staff the closure periods.
“We are tracking all of their hours and are hoping to be reimbursed either from the city of Chicago or the contractor doing the work,” Biagi said.
Natalie Hayes is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
