2008 Woodie Awards
Addition of left-turn lane to improve safety of roads
By: Adam Louis
Issue date: 3/14/08 Section: Local
The city's plan to make the roads a little safer is about to be realized.
To solve previous safety issues and help make traffic flow more efficiently, the city plans to create a center, two-way left-turn lane on the 1.1-mile stretch of North Main Street between the south end of Dill Avenue and Newton Road.
"This project has been on the books for seven to 10 years," city engineer Brian O'Connell said. "We have to get moving on this."
In the past years, there have been many rear-end and front-to-side crashes in part due to a lack of a turning lane, O'Connell said. According to the city's Police Department's 2007 Crash Analysis Report, 5.01 percent of 1,232 crashes occurred along in the identified stretch of road.
"It's one of our highest crash areas due to the volume of traffic," Administrative Lieutenant Tony Hetrick said.
The city made similar changes to Wooster Street five years ago for many of the same reasons, O'Connell said. They will expand the road on each side and will leave one lane going each direction open throughout construction, Assistant Municipal Administrator Lori Tretter said. This will allow access to businesses along the stretch of North Main Street during the expansion.
The expansion, priced at $7.3 million, is partially funded by the Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments. The TMACG is a federally funded, non-profit organization whose duties include doling out money to area cities to be used for maintenance of city property and improvements like road expansion, O'Connell said. The remaining money will come from city funds.
Although a contractor has not bid for the expansion yet, Poggemeyer Design Group will be in charge of construction.
Construction is scheduled to begin July 2010.
ABOUT THE EXPANSION
Creating a left lane could prevent crashes and provide flowing traffic.
The street will be expanded on each side to make room for a center left-turn lane.
One lane in each direction will stay open.
The project will cost $7.3 million.
The construction will begin July 2010.
To solve previous safety issues and help make traffic flow more efficiently, the city plans to create a center, two-way left-turn lane on the 1.1-mile stretch of North Main Street between the south end of Dill Avenue and Newton Road.
"This project has been on the books for seven to 10 years," city engineer Brian O'Connell said. "We have to get moving on this."
In the past years, there have been many rear-end and front-to-side crashes in part due to a lack of a turning lane, O'Connell said. According to the city's Police Department's 2007 Crash Analysis Report, 5.01 percent of 1,232 crashes occurred along in the identified stretch of road.
"It's one of our highest crash areas due to the volume of traffic," Administrative Lieutenant Tony Hetrick said.
The city made similar changes to Wooster Street five years ago for many of the same reasons, O'Connell said. They will expand the road on each side and will leave one lane going each direction open throughout construction, Assistant Municipal Administrator Lori Tretter said. This will allow access to businesses along the stretch of North Main Street during the expansion.
The expansion, priced at $7.3 million, is partially funded by the Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments. The TMACG is a federally funded, non-profit organization whose duties include doling out money to area cities to be used for maintenance of city property and improvements like road expansion, O'Connell said. The remaining money will come from city funds.
Although a contractor has not bid for the expansion yet, Poggemeyer Design Group will be in charge of construction.
Construction is scheduled to begin July 2010.
ABOUT THE EXPANSION
Creating a left lane could prevent crashes and provide flowing traffic.
The street will be expanded on each side to make room for a center left-turn lane.
One lane in each direction will stay open.
The project will cost $7.3 million.
The construction will begin July 2010.
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