Sugar Grove proposes roundabout at Granart and Dugan roads

SUGAR GROVE – Sugar Grove officials are gearing up to improve the intersection at Granart and Dugan roads, which likely will include the installation of a roundabout.

Village President Sean Michels said the Illinois Department of Transportation will fund the upgrades in conjunction with another road construction project at Route 30 and Dugan Road.

Michels said the proposed roundabout was the result of a 2012 traffic study, which indicated that the area had heavy morning and evening traffic.

“It really surprised everybody when the study was done how much traffic there was day in and day out,” Michels said.

He said IDOT and the village are working with engineering consultant, Yorkville-based HR Green, which proposed the roundabout. Following the traffic study, he said the parties concluded that installing a roundabout would help ease traffic
congestion and improve the way traffic flows through the area.

Michels said the roundabout will take the place of a stoplight intersection, which should help ease traffic in that area.

“The thought at first was to make Granart and Dugan a stoplight intersection,” he said. “As we talked about it, there’s a lot of traffic in the morning and the evening, but during the day, there’s not a lot of traffic. People would have to wait for a stoplight to cycle through to let them go northbound. We thought, that’s pretty inefficient.”

Michels said if everything is approved, ground could break on the new roundabout as soon as next year and may be completed as soon as 2015.

“From a traffic perspective, we think it’s not just a fad. It’s the traffic design of the future,” Michels said. “Once [drivers] use it and become accustomed to it, they’ll really like it.”

An open house is planned at the Sugar Grove Public Library to discuss the proposed roundabout Tuesday.

Also on Tuesday – the night of the regular Village Board meeting – trustees are slated to discuss and possibly take action on a proposed tax levy of 2.7 percent.

Michels said 1.7 percent of the proposed tax levy is allowed under the consumer price index, while the remaining 1 percent is from new residential and commercial construction.

Although it’s based on market values, the proposed tax levy would amount to about $7 more per year for an average household in Sugar Grove, Michels said.

“We’re raising it so that we can put money in our roads that are getting older, and sidewalks and other improvements that the village needs to make,” he said.

If you go

What: An open house to discuss the proposed roundabout at Dugan and Granart roads in Sugar Grove

Where: Sugar Grove Public Library, 125 Municipal Drive, Sugar Grove

When:  3 to 6 p.m. Tuesday