Joliet promised help six years ago for dangerous Theodore Street intersection

If the city of Joliet’s explanation for why a dangerous intersection on Theodore Street has not been remedied seems familiar, it should be.

Six years go, then-Public Works Director James Trizna told the City Council, as reported by the Herald-News, that stop signs residents sought could not be placed on one intersection because that would interfere with city plans to make the entire road a “signalized corridor.”

The April 7, 2016, Herald-News headline noted: “No stop sign now, but lights coming later on Theodore Street in Joliet”

The story also noted: “Trizna later said the timeline for future traffic signals could be three to five years but added it was a preliminary estimate and depended on available funding for the projects. The first traffic signals likely would go at Wesmere Parkway and Drauden Road, he said. A stop light at County Line Road would follow.”

The Westmere Parkway intersection on Theodore, still without a stop light, was the scene of a fatal crash on June 2. The Drauden Road intersection also remains without a stop light, but a March 3 plan includes that intersection in the stoplight plan.

“Our plan is to make this all a signalized corridor,” Trizna had told the Council in 2016. “This is a major arterial street. You don’t want to intersperse stop signs with traffic signals.”