Access management: Future highway corridor to be shaped
Access management: Future highway corridor to be shaped
By LAURA KIRBY, DMG Writer
ONTONAGON — More cars, more comfort and less conflict. Three Cs will help shape the new Ontonagon Highway Corridor and make it more attractive and safer for tourists, according to planners involved in the village’s Access Management plan.
Reducing the number of intersections, improving driveway design and controlling future commercial and large building development will be the council’s mission should they choose to accept recommendations devised by a corridor study team this year.
Members Linda Howlett, a community consultant, and Valerie Mellon of Wilcox Professional Services presented their conclusions during a village council meeting Monday. The team, which included Michigan Department of Transportation and Western Upper Peninsula Planning & Development Region representatives, looked at points of conflict and crash data for the village, gathering input from emergency workers, police and public over the past year.
Specifically they looked at how the predicted increasing traffic flow should be directed as the M-64 bridge is relocated and development is attracted to the new highway corridor. The new bridge, to be open by Labor Day, will redirect M-38 traffic to by-pass downtown about 3,000 feet upriver.
Close and multiple driveway turnings and intersections as caused by poor visibility and lighting were a target of the study and should be reduced, Mellon said. What’s important to remember is that every intersection provides a potential conflict point, she said.
The study recommends the village adopt new zoning to incorporate a “site plan review” process. That means future development would have to be approved by the council in terms of its effect on traffic flow, though existing structures would not be subject to the law.
Making these provisions for the future should foster development in the area, because traffic and people will be drawn to safe and comfortable roads, Mellon said.
“By improving access you actually make the area more attractive to visitors,” she added.
Specific recommendations were:
• Combining driveways leading to M-38 (e.g. Pat’s Foods, County Courthouse). These could be consolidated into one driveway with a frontage road to decrease conflict point on M-38, said Howlett.
• The intersection of Highway M-38 and 7th Street could have increased visibility by moving trees back and softening curb corners.
• The island on the intersection on M-38 and old Highway U.S. 45 between the Holiday and Mobil gas stations “took out access points and inadvertently created some more,” said Mellon.
Its design could be re-evaluated and a planter and street light moved to increase visibility.
The Access Management Plan is available online at www.wuppdr.org.
Laura Kirby can be reached at lkirby@mininggazette.com
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