How one Yorkville intersection got a new stop sign

After sitting unfinished for two decades, the homes in Yorkville’s Grand Reserve neighborhood are nearing completion. With the influx of residents comes an influx of cars and traffic. To abate traffic concerns the city completed a traffic study to assess which intersections should be upgraded with stop signs.

The study analyzed if the safety of any of the intersections would be significantly improved with a yield or stop sign. It recommended only one of the intersections qualified for a stop sign, the northeast corner of Matlock Drive and Berrywood Lane for westbound traffic. According to the study, the added stop sign will help accommodate the anticipation of future developments and traffic demands.

Yorkville City Council approved installing the stop sign at their Jan. 28 meeting.

Eric Dhuse, Yorkville’s director of public works, said when analyzing possible intersection changes, city officials take each request on a case by case basis.

“This was a request from one of the alderman’s constituents in that area because the area is now filling in so much,” Dhuse said. “The homes are almost all complete now in that area. Now that they are getting finished, we see a little shift in the traffic pattern. Our study found only the one intersection needed a stop sign.”

According to the traffic study, each intersection in the neighborhood was observed for vehicle, bicycle, and pedestrian volume and for the average speed of traveling vehicles. The study found that the observed vehicles largely followed the area’s posted speed limit of 30 mph.

There has been only one documented traffic accident in the Grand Reserve neighborhood in the previous 36 months.

Residents are urged to contact their local alderman if they believe a specific intersection could be a good candidate for installing a yield or stop sign to improve safety or the traffic flow of the area.