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The private access road that goes from Dubois Drive to Parker Street behind Alick’s Home Medical, 2306 Dubois Drive, Warsaw, will be blocked off beginning next week.
Warsaw Public Works Director Dustin Dillon explained to the Warsaw Traffic Safety Commission on Wednesday Dubois Drive was turned into a one-way street heading back west a number of years ago. Dubois Drive became a one-way street on June 24, 2010.
“That was, in fact, due to once this Parker Street interchange was put it, it made it almost impossible to access U.S. 30 to get out there,” he said. “So, city officials doing their homework were working with INDOT. Springhill Road was not a controlled intersection at the time. It was still just an enter-at-your-own-risk. So, working with INDOT, they were able to put a controlled traffic signal there to allow people to that were leaving one of these businesses or neighborhood, back behind, if they were going east or west, an easier way to access - a much safer way to access - U.S. 30 to travel.”
Southbound traffic needed to go west on Dubois Drive and then down Harrison Street if they’re moving south, taking Harrison back to Center Street, which is another traffic signal intersection, Dillon said.
“The passageway in between was never meant for public travel. That is private property that was meant for deliveries, loading, customer service and the safety of the workers that ingress and egress out of there,” Dillon stated. “The amount of traffic that is coming through there - when we met on site, we were there at 10 o’clock in the morning, not a high-peak travel time and there was probably 10 vehicles that came through.”
The private road access snakes through the parking lot with parking spaces on both sides of it.
“It’s just a huge, huge safety risk for them. So they’re electing to close that on their property, so that will no longer be open shortly. Probably next week it’ll be closed, most likely,” Dillon said.
At the same time Dubois Drive was made a one-way street, Brookview also was shut off into a dead-end street for safety reasons, as well as not to allow a lot of traffic through that neighborhood with kids playing, he continued.
“All of that kind of happened years ago, but, again, a lot of the community may not have realized that this is private property,” Dillon stated.
He noted no action was needed by the Warsaw Traffic Commission. They just wanted to make the public aware of what the preferred route is, the private access road will be closed and “no trespassing” signs will be put up for the safety of the workers at Alick’s.
Warsaw Police Department Capt. Brad Kellar asked how the road will be blocked.
Jamie Cumberland, branch manager at Alick’s, responded, “Right now, it’s either going to be posts or boulders across there. If that stops it, then we won’t put a lift gate up because we’re afraid that people will just go through the lift gate and it’ll be a constant repair. So there will be big boulders going across.”
She estimated the blockage might be about 10 feet in so that if someone tries to drive that way, they can easily back out and go the right route.
City Planner Justin Taylor asked if there will be any signage to warn people that they can’t use the private access road. Cumberland said there is signage there that there is no entrance there, but people still drive through it.
Traffic Administrator Lance Grubbs asked how many vehicles did she think drove through the public access road. Cumberland said at one time, when it was the Pill Box Pharmacy, they had over 250 in less than four hours.
Kellar said, especially during peak periods, those cars trying to come out onto Parker Street, “you would have issues with people trying to force their way out on Parker, with heavy traffic. You would also have people back traffic up, trying to be nice, letting people come through and causing that issue as well.”
Cumberland said school time is also a big problem because school buses need to let kids off and people are not patient.
