Tallahassee electric crews are upgrading power lines and replacing utility poles along Centerville Road. Work is scheduled in four phases. Phase one includes the project limits and detours as follows.
Northbound traffic on N. Magnolia Drive will detour to westbound 7th Avenue, local traffic may continue northbound to the detour for eastbound Hodges Drive. Southbound Centerville Road will detour to southbound Blair Stone Road. Local traffic entering Betton Road will detour westbound to Thomasville Road.
Detour exceptions are local traffic and emergency first responders only. Begin and end construction times for phase one are 8 p.m. to 5 a.m.
Phase two is set to begin mid-June running to the middle of July between Betton Road and Trescott Drive. This project will be a daytime job from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Phase three will be between Trescott Drive and Woodgate Way from mid-July to mid-August during the day, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Phase four construction will be between Woodgate Way and Potts Road beginning late September with completion during early November. Phase four is a nighttime project from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m.
The above project limits, times and dates are subject to the unforeseen and inclement weather. Outside activities like bass fishing, picnicking with family or setting utility poles — it’s always the weather. As phase two is gearing up Street Scene will bring you detour patterns as we will for phase three and four. Let’s hope this project is a precursor to resurfacing Centerville Road.
Zoning out
Q. Ben is asking Street Scene to clarify the new school zone times of day.
A. Ben, if you read Street Scene with some regularity you will recall we found the city of Tallahassee issuing speeding tickets outside posted school zone times and when flashing school signs were not flashing. In fact, we cautioned everyone that school zones are now school areas. Sadly, as vehicle speed is no longer governed by legal school zone signs, flashing signals and end school zone signs, law abiding citizens can no longer depend on them.
Street Scene was westbound on Kerry Forest Parkway recently driving behind a City of Tallahassee utility truck. The time was about 3:55 p.m., well outside the afternoon posted school zone time of 3:20 p.m. However, the city employee driving the Tallahassee government truck was taking no chances. He maintained 15 mph throughout the school area only increasing to the 30-mph residential speed after passing through the intersection of Wellington Drive.
This strange traffic “rule” appears to have most drivers confused. Personally, I agree with the City truck driver insofar as I maintain a reduced speed when in the area/vicinity of any school as I remain on alert for any school children in the area. I pay no attention to the End School Zone signs either. To stay in-the-know, we will keep watch with Street Scene in the Tallahassee Democrat at Tallahassee.com.
Squashed post delineators
Q. Mark says making a right turn off Capital Circle onto Centerville Road the rubber poles guiding cars away from Centerville Road traffic have been run over so many times they are no longer brightly colored making them hard to see at night.
A. I believe you are referring to southbound Capital Circle NE right turn entrance into the merge lane onto Centerville Road. As post delineators get run over, they lose their brightness and reflective quality. Some get smooshed and some get broken. We ask our traffic safety guys to investigate this and make replacements as necessary. Thanks, Mark, for bringing this to our attention.
How children are at risk in parking lots
Helen writes: I was walking into Publix supermarket yesterday when I witnessed two small children run directly in front of a pickup truck. The truck was huge with big oversized wheels and going way too fast for a parking lot. The children’s mother was walking behind them talking on her phone. If the driver hadn’t come to an abrupt stop the truck would have completely run down those little children.
Watching this near tragedy unfold had my heart racing to the point I had to return to my car in order to get collected before I was able to resume my shopping plans. Please Mr. Stuart write about this frightening experience in your column. Someone has to alert parents with small children to the danger of allowing children to run ahead in a parking lot. Can you call the police and ask them to patrol supermarket parking lots. People do speed around parking lots where there is a constant stream of shoppers trying their best to not be run over.
Gladly Helen. I will also elaborate on your excellent portrait of a human induced calamity leading to unnecessary deaths of children across the Globe.
Dear Parents, your unimaginable loss and lifelong grief is only compounded knowing you were careless. Parents with jobs, house upkeep, meal preparations, getting everyone ready for school and sports activities, grocery shopping and a myriad of things life throws at us does not allow for lack of judgment.
Then there is this: if you put children in a carrier then place them in the back seat put an obvious reminder in an obvious place on the dashboard in front of you. Change that memory trigger multiple times since our busy brain quickly becomes accustomed to sameness. There are cases where children left in a vehicle as the parent went to work.
This is primarily when a daily routine is broken: the parent taking the child to daycare has not had that task before. If you have a vehicle that allows you to turn off the passenger side airbag put your precious cargo in the front seat next to you.
Summer safety vigilance
There are two events at hand of which we, as vehicle operators, must recognize as the potential disaster they bring if we are not diligent.
School is out for the summer. Children out of school will eventually be in our streets, be ever aware children will and do run onto the roadways. Some play games on residential streets, especially a street that ends at a cul-de-sac. Look and you will see basketball goals at the curb facing the road.
Summer rains are here. Tire condition is paramount to being safe on wet slippery roads baring puddles with enough water to cause hydroplaning. As an aside, if you operate a front wheel drive vehicle on a trip and encounter heavy rain you must disengage the cruise control. Entering standing water at highway speed a vehicle can easily hydroplane.
Front wheel drive vehicles tend to spin up engine RPMs as the tires lose traction with the road while the cruise control is trying to maintain the set speed.
During this brief moment of loss of traction, you will have no control of direction. Very bad if you are on a curve. A vehicle coming out of hydroplaning with runaway high engine rpms can take you in an unwanted direction as the high rpm front wheels again find traction with the road. When back on dry pavement reengage the cruise control.
A note from Street Scene
I have decided there is no such thing as an inanimate object! Any non-living thing can and will fight back at any moment. Try untangling a few interlocked coat hangers which were hanging freely when you put them in the closet. It’s an all out fight. When we drop something, where does it go, straight to the most difficult place to find and retrieve it. There are at least a thousand examples of inanimate objects coming to life just to hinder my daily activities.
Be wise – stay safe.
Philip Stuart is a retired Florida State Trooper, Traffic Operations Projects Engineer and Forensics Expert Witness. Write to crashsites@embarqmail.com.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Watch for electric crews on Centerville and other summer road dangers
Reporting by Philip Stuart, Street Scene / Tallahassee Democrat
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By Philip Stuart, Street Scene | USA TODAY Network
