Starke County Highway Superintendent Rik Ritzler provided the commissioners with information this week on a traffic study on two separate intersections.
Ritzler said Laura Slusher from Purdue LTAP updated him on an investigation into the intersection of County Roads 200 N. and 700 E. She noted that this is a low-volume intersection with traffic counts less than 400 vehicles per day on each intersection leg. There are stop signs on 700 E., but officials believe a four-way stop is needed there. Based on the study, a four-way stop is not recommended. Ritzler disagrees with that assessment.
Ritzler commented, “There have been three accidents there in the last year-and-a-half. I’m going to talk to Laura Slusher, she’s the engineer who did the report. I disagree with some of the things on traffic volume. We can put the boxes back up because I think we may have put them on a low day because 700 E. gets more than 400 a day. When we had our last one it didn’t.”
“I think it needs a four-way stop,” said Commissioner Bryan Cavender.
“Yes,” added Commission President Charlie Chesak.
“I do too,” continued Ritzler. “The problem is if we put up a four-way stop when the engineer says no that could be a problem legally.”
Ritzler said the assessment of the intersection of County Roads 100 E. and 500 S. does warrant a change in traffic.
Ritzler added, “On that one, they said we could put in a four-way stop in because of sight distance – if we wanted to. That one we probably will change. I’m going to review this and talk more with Laura about it.”
In the report, Slusher states that there was one reported crash at 100 E. and 500 S. in the last five years. It was a property damage only accident with no injuries.
Ritzler told the commissioners that he will have an update on his discussions with Slusher either at the Sept. 21 meeting or at the Oct. 5 meeting.
