Safety first?
Public meetings designed to gather input regarding Payette County corridor blueprint
By JESSICA KELLER
ARGUS OBSERVER
Sunday, September 28, 2008 12:15 AM PDT
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| Katie Pizza | Argus Observer
The intersection of 16th Street and U.S. Highway 95 in Fruitland is one of the most dangerous, as far as accidents, along the U.S. Highway 95 corridor in Payette County and one engineers examined for the U.S. 95 Corridor Study. |
FRUITLAND—Fruitland and Payette residents can share their thoughts and concerns about traffic issues on U.S. Highway 95 during a series of public meetings Monday and Tuesday as part of the Idaho Transportation Department’s U.S. 95 Corridor Study and Access Management Plan.
ITD senior planner Phil Choate said the highway access management plan set to be completed is a cooperative effort between ITD and the local jurisdictions along the section of U.S. Highway 95 that includes Fruitland, Payette and Payette County.
“The access management plan ... is basically a conservative look at how the existing highway access in Payette County on Highway 95 can be preserved and serve the functionality that we require of these kind of major arterials well into the future and what kind of things we can do to make sure that happens,” Choate said.
He said ITD’s goal is to preserve the highway as a high-speed — meaning greater than 45 mph — corridor and to do it in a safe manner.
“We’re essentially providing connectivity in rural communities,” Choate said, adding, first, the existing operation of the highway has to be studied to determine what problem areas exist, what areas of the highway have frequent accidents and what can be done to preserve the safety of the people on the highway, while still preserving the nature of what the roadway was intended to be.
Karen Doherty, HDR engineering firm, the consultants hired to complete some portions of the study needed to develop the access management plan, said they have finished examining the existing highway and determined which areas have high rates of accidents.
“Right now we’re just in the existing conditions portion of the plan,” Doherty said. “We’ve done research as far as the highest accident volume, highest traffic concentration ... basically areas we have to pay attention to.”
Based on their research, the intersection of 16th Street and U.S. Highway 95, also known as Gayway Junction, has the highest accident rate in the area. However, a number of other places along the highway in Payette County are also dangerous.
The workshops Monday in Fruitland and Tuesday in Payette are designed to present to residents the research HDR gathered, explain what the access management plan will do and see if there are other areas residents think engineers and ITD should know about, Doherty said.
One area of concern for some Fruitland residents is Alden Road, which serves as the street leading to two mobile home parks for senior citizens. Already, an Alden Road couple submitted a letter to Choate and Doherty regarding their concerns about turning onto Alden Road from U.S. Highway 95.
Other residents on Alden Road also share the same concerns.
“It is a big problem,” Alden Road resident John Haagensen said. “Yes, a very big problem.”
Turning onto or off of Alden Road, the last road situated before the Payette River Bridge northbound, is hazardous for the local residents, Haagensen said. When turning right onto Alden Road from U.S. Highway 95 headed northbound, drivers who are headed across the bridge sometimes don’t pull into the left-hand lane until the last minute before crossing the bridge and drive too close and don’t slow down for the drivers turning onto Alden road, Haagensen said. When turning left onto U.S. Highway 95, going toward Ontario from Alden Road, Haagensen said, residents have to cross two lanes of traffic in an area where the speed is 45 mph, and drivers sometimes go faster just to get over to the center lane to access the southbound lane.
“We’ve had a few accidents, and I have almost had one or two myself,” Haagensen said. “It’s a difficult access.”
John Chard, another Alden Road resident, agreed. He said turning in and out on Alden Road can be pretty difficult for the seniors residing in the mobile home parks, and he said something needs to be done. Chard said, at least turning left onto U.S. Highway 95 drivers have a center lane to sit in to access the southbound lanes, once they cross the two northbound lanes, which shortly after merge into one lane so drivers can cross the bridge.
However, for those seniors turning right onto Alden Road off of U.S. Highway 95, Chard said, it’s very dangerous because the traffic crossing the bridge hasn’t merged into one lane yet, and Alden Road drivers have to share that lane with those drivers.
“It’s a joke,” he said. “We don’t have a lane to get off the road.”
Chard said getting back onto Alden Road is tough because some of those drivers going straight “push pretty hard.”
“We haven’t had any wrecks down there, but I don’t know why,” he said.
Doherty said the Alden Road intersection is one engineers are aware of and is an area identified as having problems and accidents.
Whether it will be subject to any changes through the management plan or the scheduled bridge project to replace the northbound bridge, Doherty said, she doesn’t know.
While Chard and Haagensen said they would not attend the public hearings Monday at Fruitland City Hall, Chard said another resident of Alden Road will be on hand.
The meetings are scheduled from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday at Fruitland City Hall and from the same times Tuesday at Payette City Hall. If residents can’t attend, they can post comments to the ITD Web site at www.itd.idaho.gov and click on projects, then Southwest Idaho, then U.S. 95 Corridor Study on the Corridor Studies section.
