Cook County activated a new temporary traffic light at Northfield’s Happ-Winnetka Roads intersection on Sept. 26, according to a Northfield village official.
The light will help control traffic heading to New Trier High School’s Northfield campus during the county’s Happ Road bridge replacement project, said Melissa DeFeo, assistant to Northfield’s village manager.
It will also stay up after that project ends later this year to help the county assess whether the intersection might need a permanent signal of some sort, DeFeo said.
DeFeo asked residents and other motorists to remember that while the signal “will greatly improve the flow and traffic and improve safety,” it can’t be configured the same way a permanent light signal is. It doesn’t have underground sensors or timers, she said, nor can it include left turn arrows from northbound or southbound Happ Road, because of the road’s width.
“Despite these challenges … it will ease congestion during peak school times, and make the intersection safer for motorists and pedestrians,” she said.
The county’s transportation department will include an assessment of the light’s effect in the Happ Road corridor study that Northfield and the county began in June 2016, DeFeo said.
DeFeo said the village has already gotten both positive and negative feedback about the traffic signal. She urged residents who want to comment further, or to learn more about the corridor study, to visit www.happroad.com, and to consider attending a Nov. 9 open house scheduled to take place from 4-7 p.m. at Clarkson Park.
The Happ Road bridge project began in June and is scheduled to take six months to complete, affecting traffic in Northfield, Winnetka and Wilmette, according to a Wilmette public works employee who spoke earlier this year. Once work began on the bridge, which lies just south of New Trier’s Northfield campus, traffic was redirected to Frontage Road, between Winnetka and Illinois roads.
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