Plan is to make crosswalks safer for all
By Barb Pert Templeton
A recent accident involving a juvenile pedestrian at a crosswalk in Marine City has prompted city officials to begin working with the state on better signage for the intersection.
City Manager Michael Reaves told the city commission at a Nov. 20 meeting that that the idea was to make the crosswalk at Ward Street and M-29 safer. He added that since it’s a state roadway, there’s a specific MDOT process to address plus the type of crosswalk for that spot has to be sorted.
In fact, there was a 25-page document outlining the process and a resolution the city needed to adopt in the meeting packet. It stated: This Performance Resolution (Resolution)is required by the Michigan Department of Transportation for purposes of issuing to a Municipality an ”Individual Permit for Use of State Highway Right of Way”, and/or an ”Annual Application and Permit for Miscellaneous Operations within State Highway Right of Way”
Reaves explained the MDOT agenda item to officials.
“There’s been a history of traffic signals put in and taken out and put back in and taken back out so we’d like to start the whole process over and the first piece is approval of this resolution which allows us to go into the permitting process and then place traffic enforcement signage on a state highway,” Reaves said.
Marine City Manager Michael Reaves told the commission he plans to seek two signs for an intersection at Ward Street and M-29.
He said there’s a lane marker they can get, St. Clair and Port Huron have a number of them, and they are basically signage set on a spring-loaded mechanism that indicates there’s a crosswalk coming up that must be yielded to.
Reaves said the signs are taken out in the winter months because the snow plows take them down on a regular basis and they can become a hazard.
“But we’ll reinstall them seasonally when available and that is the first-step we’ll take in order to try to make that crossing area safer,” Reaves said. “I am trying to work with the state meeting the warrants required because I know once we open the Guy Community Center, with all the improvements we’re going to make, I’m expecting a great deal more pedestrian traffic at that point but it’s a process and so this is the first step in the process.”
“This was born in reaction to the community’s concern and our concern for making that a safer intersection,” he added. Mayor Pro Tem Lisa Hendrick asked if they are allowed to have more than one sign in place.
Reaves said the state gives specific instructions on where the signs can go so the city’s planning on two signs at first but the state still has to come out and measure everything. The rule is generally signs must be so many feet north or south of the crosswalk.
“The state is very particular in terms of they have to prove the location and come out and measure and all that,” Reaves said. “As we see this go, then we’ll move on to another intersection that has issues.”
Henrick said one near Chartier, where there’s a route that leads to the local elementary school is one to consider.
“I’m aware of that but we’re going to start with Ward Street and work it out,” Reaves said.
“We have to get into the game with this process,” City Attorney Robert Davis added.
The commission then voted in favor of the MDOT resolution. Commissioner Sean O’Brien was absent from the Nov. 20 meeting.
