IDOT shares Route 6 study results with Morris residents

The Illinois Department of Transportation hosted a public meeting Wednesday night to share the results of a study it performed examining Route 6 from Ashton Road to Route 47 in Morris, laying out potential solutions to make it safer.

According to the presentation, there were 241 crashes along the road from 2014 to 2018. The project plan would convert the road starting at Ashton until Route 47 into a two-lane/four-lane divided highway, with a raised median in the center up through Lakewood Drive and a turn lane median from Lakewood to Route 47.

“The raised curb median is a major safety feature,” said David Alexander, IDOT District 3 studies and plans engineer. “If we can identify places, especially when we’re going to multi-lane highways like this, where it’s becoming a four-lane highway instead of a two-lane highway, it’s much safer if we can have that median and have access controlled through there, so some of the places will have right-in, right-out access.”

Some locations further west of town, such as the Perennial Place and the First Baptist Church, would have entrances limited to a right-turn-in and right-turn-out access.

Alexander said there will be space allocated for vehicles to make U-turns to get to their locations.

“The thing is, you’re not having people trying to turn left,” Alexander said. “Turning left out of a driveway across two lanes of traffic and then across another two to go in the other direction, that’s really where you’re crashes come from. When you can concentrate people making their turning maneuvers at intersections, it’s just much safer and all controlled by signals.”

The study also could bring changes to Lisbon Road, eliminating the offset series of stoplights to create one intersection. It also would add stoplights to the intersections at Locust Road, Edgewater Drive and Liberty Street.

Alexander said there also are some slight changes to make the angle of the intersection at Routes 6 and 47 work better, which would eliminate some parking at the Jewel-Osco on the southwest corner.

The project still is in the preliminary stages, and Alexander said it’s still at least a couple of years away from construction beginning.

The project is currently in the land acquisition and contract plan preparation phase, with construction tentatively slated to begin between 2027 and 2029.

The project is estimated to cost about $20 million and would require 8.2 acres of land acquisition from nearby property owners and 2.7 acres of temporary easements.

For more information on the project, visit idot.click/us6morrisstudy. There, residents can use the comment form to make comments on the proposed project until Christmas Eve.