04/10/1994 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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110 Special Council meeting - 4/10/94 Page Eight plan, and I call tell we are already a little bit behind the schedule because of the weather, to an outside of 90 days if we add on Highland. A lot of the discussion after we looked at this has focused on the dollars and cents involved because we are already expending quite a bit more money on this project than we had originally bargained for. But, safety still remains a paramount consideration. Very simply, the longer this project is open the more dangerous the circumstance exist. We have seen there is a lot of difficulty in policing the northern part of this site because of southbound traffic. We have 6 signs between I-90 (just beyond Chardon Road), all the way down to the intersection, there are big signs. The problem is there is no question people will take a while to get used to it. We have already added information on the signs that typically is not provided because we are trying to keep people from heading south through that intersection. We have started ticketing people today who come in from the north. We need additional manpower just to insure safety. As Mrs. Craine pointed out, she has seen cars come down there. People, you should have absolutely no doubt that we want to keep this as safe as possible. I would commend you to our Police Chief to get what I have gotten from him which is an agreement that we will do whatever is necessary to keep things safe. By lengthening the life of the project, we are automatically creating a more dangerous situation. By looking at this option, Mr. Ehrhardt said that the contractor has indicated all we have to do is worry about filling in some gravel at Wildwood. That is a very small part of the overall closing. When we had originally looked at going west on Highland, to be sure we had not thought about building a temporary road. We had thought if we were going to be excavating some 500 feet west of the intersection to a depth of upwards of 21 /2 feet, there would be difficulty in either traversing along the edge of that or either sending vehicles down in and back out again. We honestly would not send vehicles in there because there is just not enough room for it. That was the original fear. When I sent the letter envisioning that we would have this virtual land bridge across there is what kept me from wanting to pursue it. To be sure, we looked at and we felt that the only feasible way to run across there would be to build a temporary road. But, even at that, we still have an intersection at Highland and S.O.M. that creates a difficult situation ( either to man during construction hours or off construction hours.) We have Richard Overmyer who is a traffic safety expert who had sat in on these meetings indicate yes, you could do it. Yes, you could put a flagman there. There are a number of things you can do to make it "workable", but he would tell you he would not be able to certify that it is as safe as or even safer. Anyone here tonight who has the impression that by keeping Highland Road open, we are making a safer situation is misled. That is not true. It will not be safer. In all likelihood, it will be more dangerous. We have contingency plans and have had them for some time. You are shaking your heads, but again I would refer you to both the Police Chief and our Fire Department. The contingency plans we have in place deal with the construction project. The response time; the difficulties with the response time are created with the