Reply With QuoteHey Gorga:
Thank you for posting the recording of the meeting. As one unable to attend the meeting, I found it very informative and with merit.
As one who has been active (for years) in addressing the need to remediate William Street from Transit Road to Aurora Street for safety and traffic flow reasons I was most interested in what, if any, plans / road improvement designs were being considered to mitigate the problems.
I was pleased to hear Lancaster Supervisor Johanna Coleman address the county reps on traffic safety / traffic volume issues, adverse impact to emergency vehicle movement and delay in response time, a narrow road with only a 48-foot right of-way and with only one-foot shoulders, and open drainage ditches.
It was encouraging / comforting to hear county reps declare that they have been considering designs for road improvement, but that such designs would not be forthcoming until 2020 and that cost, federal aid, road width and eminent domain requirement would dictate extent of improvement.
Supervisor Coleman declared that at minimum the open drainage ditches needed to be filled in and piped to widen the road to provide safe vehicle traffic and a safe road to provide residents the ability to walk and bicycle on.
Comment
Unable to attend the August 8th Lancaster Opera House meeting with county administrators, I did submit the following comments to Legislator Bruso for consideration:
William Street, between Transit Road and Aurora Street, is a two-lane county road with daily vehicle traffic count of 15,000 cars. This stretch of road has numerous open drainage ditches and a road shoulder width of less than three feet in many areas. There is but one intersection turning lane, with signalization, in this spam – at Penora Street.
I reside (26 years) in a subdivision with ingress and egress unto William Street – Northwood Drive. I am well familiar with the ever-increasing shortcomings of this road and the existing unsafe / high risk conditions.
Of particular concern and need is the filling in of the open drainage ditches. Some of the ditches along William Street, between Aurora Street and Northwood Drive / Eastwood Drive accesses are but one foot away from the roadway. The attempt by any individual to walk or bike this stretch of road without great risk to their wellbeing is near impossible; which is why it is rare to see anyone venturing on this stretch of road except by vehicle.
Without road shoulder area for vehicles to pull over, it is also near impossible for larger emergency vehicles to get down the road when vehicle stacking occurs; for whatever reasons. Vehicles have to jog around to make an opening possible for the emergency vehicle to gain passage because there is no shoulder available to pull over on. I would suggest contacting Twin District to ascertain whether their emergency vehicles are adversely impacted by the traffic flow and response time loss.
William Street is already an overburdened two-lane county road (15,000 daily vehicles between this stretch of road) and will only get worse with new development taking place to the east and the commercial development of a Chick-fil-A and a Delta Sonic on Transit Road.
There is the concern of need for eminent domain to make this project possible. The homeowners impacted should be made aware of the personal advantages resulting from said project:
• As is, the open drainage ditch area is useless to the property owner
• The ditches often have standing water and provide harborage for mosquitoes (West Nile Virus and other ailments) and varmints
• The current road lane width will not be increased, but stripped to allow for a wider shoulder and a walking / bike path lane
• The homeowner retains property rights (if that’s legally doable)
• An estimated 40-50% of the properties between Aurora and Transit Road already have filled in drainage ditches.
• The homeowner should take satisfaction that he is also providing a community service
Future
Residents along William Street and those travelling William Street been requesting the filling in of the open drainage ditches from Transit to Aurora for years and have been given all kinds of reasons for it not happening. To now hear that we have to be patient because designs will be considered that will provide unrealistic cost-related projects is ludicrous. There is a serious safety risk at play here and we are once again kicking the can down the road. Let’s be real, the road will not be widened to provide a third lane. We need the ditches filled in to provide for a road shoulder where residents can safely walk or bicycle on, and where on rare occasions vehicles can move onto to allow for emergency vehicles to pass.
Originally Posted by gorja
