Residents’ persisting issues with the heavy traffic and dust along the truck route for the Ryan Field rebuild project nearly monopolized discussion in Wednesday evening’s Northwestern University-City Committee meeting – though university officials hope to turn the corner on these conditions in the coming weeks.
From the earliest stages of the project, neighbors of both the stadium site and the approved truck route have scrutinized the large volume of trucks used to haul materials away and out of Evanston: first the debris of the old stadium, and now a massive amount of earth as workers carve out the new stadium’s below-grade bowl.
The project used a single truck route in both directions covering Central Street between the stadium site and Sherman Avenue, Sherman between Central and Emerson Streets, and Emerson and Golf Road between Sherman and Crawford Avenue. City spokesperson Cynthia Vargas told the RoundTable in July that this route was selected over other potential routes in part because of height limitations posed by rail viaducts.
Dust ‘turns to mud’ on windshields
Nevertheless, residents in attendance said the volume of trucks driving to and from the stadium each work day is overwhelming them, particularly because of the dust they leave behind when they’re full as well as empty. Jane Danielson-Rickard said she’s experienced more asthma attacks since the trucks became more frequent, and Sherre Brutzkus said the dust caking onto cars can be so thick that when she uses her windshield wiper spray, “it turns to mud.”
Responding to the issue, Northwestern community liaison Dave Davis shared two pieces of “relatively good news.” He said the trucks’ frequency is expected to “decrease over the next month or two” as mass excavation wraps up, and on a smaller scale, Northwestern plans to distribute vouchers for free car washes to residents along the truck route in the near future.
“The reason why it actually took so long is because we were trying to identify an Evanston car washing partner,” Davis said. He encouraged residents to fill out the online request form, and promised more information will be released next week.
One particular issue raised by several attendees is that while covering the full trucks leaving Evanston has helped reduce the dust, a significant amount is actually spread by empty trucks returning to the project site. This is particularly true where the routes turn, such as at Emerson and Sherman, where Danielson-Rickard said she can often see a “gust of wind” blowing dust out the backs of the trucks as they turn.
While full trucks are legally required to cover their loads on the way out, Evanston Police Traffic Sgt. Jeff Faison said the vehicle code puts no such requirement on empty trucks. Davis noted suggestions from several people that Northwestern require this of the truck crews on its own, and committee chair and Council Member Clare Kelly (1st Ward) said she will request updates from the university on whether and when it will be enforced.
Citations ‘very low’ for truck volume
Attendees also complained of trucks committing more standard traffic violations, such as speeding or running red lights and stop signs, and some said they have videos to prove specific instances. Kelly encouraged them to share those with the city to help improve enforcement.
But Sgt. Faison said he and the four other officers in EPD’s traffic unit frequently monitor the route at various spots and times, and their citation figures don’t match the perceived scale of the issue.
“We have issued tickets during the construction project for all those violations, so for speeding, for running red lights and stop signs and unsecured loads,” Faison said. “But for the amount of truck volume you’re seeing, the numbers are very low … we can run with our radar and sit there for hours, and we won’t get a single speeding truck.”
Regarding speeding, he chalked this mismatch up to the human-level perception of the trucks and their very noticeable disruptions (i.e. their large size and loud volume) making them appear to go faster than they actually are. As for not getting every failure to stop, he said it’s a simple capacity limit: “We are not out there 24/7, and we are not at every intersection at every time.”
Davis said the university strives to be “a great neighbor” during construction, but acknowledged that “it’s difficult to monitor every bad actor” that flouts the rules on such a huge project. Still, he assured residents that truckers who are found or reported to be violating the traffic code or other project restrictions are terminated and booted from the project – and on this point, he received confirmation from Deputy City Manager Carina Sanchez, who Kelly described as the city’s staff liaison for the stadium rebuild.
“The [Central Street] Consortium, at least, has been very responsive. When we get resident complaints, and there’s been proof and it’s been verified, those truck drivers have been disciplined,” Sanchez said. “So please know that they definitely, when we’re hearing all of these complaints, are acting on it.”
Debating the committee’s scope (again)
On the topic of traffic enforcement, Tina Paden questioned whether Northwestern would reimburse the city for the time EPD spends monitoring the truck route, or use its own personnel instead. The 2008 memorandum of understanding between EPD and the University Police grants Northwestern officers off-campus jurisdiction south to Lake Street, west to Ridge Avenue and Green Bay Road, north to the city’s border with Wilmette and east to Lake Michigan, an area which encompasses most of the truck route, but excludes the Golf Road and Emerson Street portions west of Ridge.
However, when committee member Dave Schoenfeld later asked for Northwstern’s thoughts on University Police assisting with traffic enforcement, Davis shot the question down and briefly resurfaced committee members’ longstanding disagreement over how broad its scope actually is.
“I think we’ve been gracious in the amount of information that we’ve shared today around the Ryan Field project,” Davis said. “I’m just not sure that’s appropriate for this particular committee.”
“Well, who would it be appropriate to address with this?” Schoenfeld asked in response. “We don’t need to get into litigation over this question again,” he continued, “but I think this is an issue that should be addressed, and if you don’t want to address it here, then you gotta address it somewhere.”
Luke Figora, Northwestern’s chief operating officer, said the city and NU hold an internal “standing meeting” each week to share information and address issues with the stadium project, and said any questions or proposals about EPD and University Police would be handled best there.
Stadium trucks and dust still a problem, residents tell panel is from Evanston RoundTable, Evanston's most trusted source for unbiased, in-depth journalism.