The Naperville City Council rejected a request to spend an extra $2 million to build noise reducing walls along 248th Avenue in areas that don’t qualify for federal funding.
In a unanimous decision Tuesday, the council authorized city staff to proceed with plans to construct abatement walls that will benefit 75% of the residents whose yards backup to 248th Avenue. Blocks that did not meet the federal criteria, such as from Grassmere Road to Lapp Lane and from the Tall Grass Greenway to Landsdown Avenue, will not receive the walls.
Locations were based on a noise study completed by city consultant Civiltech Engineering, which took into account the added traffic that will be generated by Masjid Al-Nur, an under-construction Muslim mosque complex that will be fully built out about 2040.
The abatement walls are part of a project to improve and widen 248th Avenue between 95th and 103rd Streets, which will increase from two lanes to five. Naperville secured $6.45 million from the Federal Highway Administration to help pay for the $9.5 million project, construction of which is to begin in 2026.
Residents abutting areas not receiving walls had asked the city spend an additional $2 million to erect them, but Councilman Paul Hinterlong said he couldn’t support that.
“If it doesn’t meet the criteria, then we shouldn’t be spending the money for a select few residents that will be getting a huge advantage on the rest of the taxpayers in town,” Hinterlong said.
He also questioned whether the fences will even be necessary in a few years given that the state and federal governments are phasing out gas-powered vehicles in favor of quieter, electric vehicles in the coming decade.
Bill Novack, director of city’s Transportation, Engineering and Development department, said the model used in the traffic study does not take into account the use of or increase in electric vehicles.
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Mayor Steve Chirico said he was favoring the expenditure because the intersection of 75th and Washington streets — an area where the city paid for walls in spots that didn’t meet federal standards — turned out well aesthetically, but acknowledged Hinterlong’s arguments were compelling.
“Things are changing, and one of the things that’s changing is that these cars will be considerably quieter,” Chirico said.
Whether it’s two, five or 10 years, he said, “it’s going to be happening.”
Novack said the homes near Grassmere Road are set back from 248th Avenue because of stormwater management facilities and narrowly missed meeting the federal criteria. Houses near Landsdown Avenue don’t qualify because of their distance from 248th Avenue due to their configuration on a cul-de-sac.
In addition, the house on the southwest corner of 248th and Lapp Lane that backs up to the Tall Grass Greenway fell short because a continuous wall cannot be built there.
The city opted not to install a wall at the northwest corner of 248th Avenue and 103rd Street, where a residential development is under consideration.
Despite the growth in the area, 248th Avenue from 95th to 103rd streets remains a rural roadway with a gravel shoulder, drainage ditches and one 11.5-foot lane in each direction.
When it’s widened, there will be two lanes in each direction with a landscaped median and left-turn lanes at intersecting streets. Storm sewers, curbs, gutters and streetlights will be installed and sidewalks added where there are gaps.
In addition, a pedestrian refuge island will be added at the Tall Grass Greenway Trail crossing.