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Center Street is one of the busiest roads within the city of Warsaw, and it came up in discussion several times Wednesday during the Warsaw Traffic Safety Commission meeting.
Public Works Director Dustin Dillon first brought it up when he told the commission, “We started noticing that what seemed to be a more-than-normal number of semi trucks on Center Street in some areas outside of the truck route, outside of the necessary delivery trucks, from what it seemed.”
From there, he said they started looking into that.
“We’re in the initial phases right now, just reviewing the current truck routes, reviewing the current ordinances, making sure the signage, monitoring any PD issues, any damages. We’ve had a few traffic signal poles that have been flipped by those, some light poles, so we’re just kind of looking into it right now. We’ll do some review, some investigation on it, and then move for improvements - any improvements - to be brought before this commission and ultimately a recommendation to the (city) council from there,” Dillon stated.
The process is just now starting as spring approaches. He said they don’t want to move too fast on it or make any hasty changes or decisions without the Traffic Safety Commission’s input.
“We’ll be looking into it,” Dillon said.
Center & McKinley
He then moved on to the intersection of Center and McKinley streets, which came up at January’s and February’s meetings, though he missed February’s. Specifically, the concern was going south on McKinley Street, pulling out onto Center Street by Jimmy John’s.
“So I reached out to Jimmy John’s on the situation. We met with the management,” Dillon said, referring to himself, Warsaw Police Department Capt. Brad Kellar, Capt. Joel Beam and Street Superintendent Joe Vetor. “We were able to make a great connection with them. They were very good to work with, as far as allowing us to set up a mock situation.”
The parking bumpers at Jimmy John’s currently are sitting a little close to the back side of the curb at Center Street, Dillon said, and they’re going to move those in about 4 feet from the back of the curb to give a little more sight distance. The last parking stall will be eliminated.
“We wanted to be respectful to the tenants’ rights and make sure that they were on board. They were more than willing to work with us. They were going to reach out to the property owners, but super thankful to them for doing that,” Dillon said.
He reiterated the changes will provide a good amount of sight distance at the intersection. They will continue to monitor that area once the changes are made, which will be in the next couple weeks.
Councilwoman Cindy Dobbins thanked Dillon for doing that as she said she’s received some calls about it.
“It was amazing while we were standing out there, just setting up the mock scenario, and talking it over and talking to the management of Jimmy John’s, how many people came down that road. With Kroger right there and the workout center, it is a busy area. There’s a lot of people going that way. So, again, just a safety modification and hopefully it’ll ensure that for everybody,” Dillon stated.
Center & Washington
City Planner Justin Taylor moved the discussion to the intersection of Center and Washington streets downtown Warsaw.
“So this covers some of the initiatives that Ride+Walk have been working towards,” he said, reminding the commission that Ride+Walk is the pedestrian and bicycling advocacy group that helped the city form a bike-pedestrian master plan among other things to help improve the quality of life for the city of Warsaw residents.
“We also recommended that Washington and Center corner have some sort of bump-out or daylighting done to improve that street safety there. So we’re currently working with our partners at MACOG (Michiana Area Council of Governments) to get some products from them but also to explore potentially using some city funds to make it a more robust bump-out where we have these white pylons, but we also implement a low curb around the edge of that area where it steps out so that there’s more visibility for pedestrians and motorists at that intersection,” he said.
Daylighting is an urban design strategy to enhance safety at intersections by improving visibility.
Another potential project that Ride+Walk wanted to advocate for this year, and that Taylor wanted the committee to review, was a proposal to put sharrows that would connect the multimodal trail that enters downtown Warsaw to the Downtown Warsaw YMCA. That is Market Street up to Fort Wayne Street via Columbia Street.
A sharrow is the bike symbol with chevrons above it, Taylor explained. “It’s paint on the ground that reminds motorists that there are bikes that may be riding or using the full lane of the road, and it also encourages cyclists to use the dedicated routes that we selected and encourage them to use for safety purposes.”
Nathan Callithen, a member of the Ride+Walk Advisory Committee, said, “All we are presenting today is just an idea or concept of what this might look like right now, just looking at the intersection of Washington and Center Street for the daylighting. And then the sharrows is just to provide some guidelines for someone who might be using the greenway, of the safest way to get to the YMCA or to The Grove neighborhood that is expanding with all the development that is going in that area. We just want to provide them some guidelines, some guidance, as far as what’s the safest route between those two places.”
The Traffic Safety Commission approved member Jason Brown’s motion the commission supports the sharrow project to connect Market Street to the Downtown Warsaw YMCA.
Detroit & Pope
Center Street didn’t get all the attention at the commission’s meeting.
Dillon reported a city committee has been working on a safety project since last summer on Detroit and Pope streets. They had V & S Engineering look into it and come up with some different options at that intersection on what could potentially be done there to improve the area.
V & S Engineering asked the city committee to narrow it down to three different scenarios and the committee selected one that they believe is most favorable for the safety of the entire area. Dillon said they’re coming up with a final presentation that will be presented to the Traffic Safety Commission in the near future.
“We are working on that. There’s been a significant investment in the research and bringing in industry experts to look at this scenario, so that will be coming pretty soon,” he stated.
Anchorage Road
Warsaw Community and Economic Development Director Jeremy Skinner told the commission construction on Anchorage Road will start March 16, so the road will be closed that Monday. There will be detours set up, and information on that will be sent out via traditional and social media.
“Hopefully, we’ll get that information out to the public because there will be significant traffic delays in using that route during this construction. It is set to be completed this year, so it’ll run through November, and every day is accounted for on the schedule, so it’ll be a tight construction window from start to finish,” Skinner stated.
