What are the traffic safety concerns on Dixie Highway, and how should those issues be addressed?
Can’or should’the township consider putting in sewers?
What about safety paths to help keep walkers, joggers and bike-riders out of harm’s way?
These are just a few questions on the minds of Springfield Township officials and business owners as they plan improvements to the Dixie Highway Corridor.
Although township officials say many of the issues’especially traffic safety’need to be addressed sooner rather than later, the possibility of federal stimulus funding has ignited a push for solid plans.
‘We came up with some visioning goals,? said Supervisor Mike Trout, who’s met twice with a core group of Dixie Highway business owners assembled several years ago by now-retired Supervisor Collin Walls. ‘I’ve got a proposal from our engineering firm to do a more detailed analysis of the traffic safety issues, and I think that’ll give us some idea of what kind improvements we can make, whether it’s a boulevard, signals, signage or other things that will enhance the corridor.?
The proposal from Hubble, Roth and Clark was unanimously approved, Thursday, by the township board, who allocated up to $16,000 to pay for the study covering the Dixie Highway corridor from Big Lake Road to Davisburg Road.
Concentrations of crashes, HRC representatives said, may be caused by the complex interchange with I-75, as well as the number and close proximity of freeway ramps, driveways and streets along the corridor. Study objectives include:
‘Review traffic crash data from the previous three years;
‘Develop subsequent list of safety issues by location;
‘Develop solutions, including traffic islands, boulevard sections and service drives;
‘Review impacts to MDOT facilities such as Park and Ride, Freeway Ramps;
‘Perform traffic signal warrant study at Dixie Highway I-75 southbound off-ramp;
‘Evaluate need for left turn signal phasing at the Dixie Highway Davisburg Road intersection;and
‘Evaluate benefits of aligning Big Lake Road, Dixie Highway intersection with Deerhill/Dixie Highway intersection.
According to plans submitted by the firm, HRC will work in conjunction with Carlisle-Wortman Associates, as well as township officials.
For planner Dick Carlisle, the project is a continuation of the work he’s been doing with the Springfield Township Planning Commission to update the township’s master plan and investigate opportunities for investment in Dixie Highway.
‘We concentrated quite on a bit on infrastructure needed to support private development activity: utilities, the roadway, access problems along Dixie Highway, particularly at the interchange,? Carlisle said, noting that several areas present significant safety problems.
‘From Big Lake Road up past Lavon, there are some serious access issue there,? he said. ‘That whole stretch is a high accident area. Where Big Lake intersects with Dixie Highway and Deerhill intersects with Dixie Highway, it’s a very dysfunctional area from the standpoint of where those intersections are; same thing with the interchange ramps north of I-75. There’s a great need for better organization that will allow for safer intersections.?
Carlisle, who also serves as a planner for Independence Township, said while the two communities are at different stages in a quest to improve Dixie Highway in their respective communities, a mutual interest exists.
‘At a minimum, an information exchange is going to be important as both communities continue their own planning,? he said. ‘Where I see prospect for joint planning will be Dixie Highway/I-75 interchange area, where the two communities have the most in common; they both have a lot to gain by coordinating efforts in that area.?
Carlisle said his recommendations would include joint planning of the interchange area.
HRC was prepared to begin the study as soon as the proposal was approved by the township board. Trout said he anticipated a report in approximately three to six months.