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4 ^ <br />L^. <br />TO: <br />FROM; <br />DATE: <br />Mayor and City Council <br />Ron Moorse, City Administrator <br />September 10, 1993 <br />\" % <br />SUBJECT;% ^Highway 12 and Willow Intersection Safety Impro^^^nts <br />Attachments:1. <br />2. <br />Accident Information at Willow and Highway 12. <br />Letter From MnDOT Regarding the Safety <br />Improvement Project <br />The cities of Long Lake and Orono have been working with MnDOT for <br />a number of years to provide safety improvements to the Willow and <br />Highway 12 intersection. The optimum solution is a traffic light <br />and lane channelization. When this solution was delayed, both <br />cities worked toward obtaining a temporary traffic signal. This <br />has been found to be unfeasible. The cities have not identified a <br />new alternative because any alternative other chan a traffic signal <br />and lane channelization would have many side effects in terms of <br />safety of other accesses, circulation, traffic levels on other <br />roadways, and viability of businesses. <br />The attached letter from MnDOT is in response to a request from the <br />city to review the potential for restricting left hand turns as an <br />interim safety measure. The letter indicates the easiest and <br />safest solution specifically for the Willow Drive intersection <br />would be to place a median across the intersection to restrict all <br />left hand turns and all crossings of Highway 12 at Willow. In <br />following up with the MnDOT staff person who provided this <br />response, he indicated that because of concerns regarding moving <br />left hand turns from Willow to other minor roadway intersections to <br />the east it may work better to look at other less restrictive <br />measures. I have invited the MnDOT staff person to meet with the <br />Highway 12 and Willow safety committee to review alternative <br />solutions. The MnDOT staff person indicated that as part of any <br />solution selected, there should be an effort to reduce the amount <br />of traffic at the Willow and Highway 12 intersection by encouraging <br />local traffic to use local streets for access to the Willow Drive <br />commercial area rather than using Highway 12. <br />The proposed solutions need to address the types of accidents that <br />are happening at the intersection. I have attached information <br />regarding the accidents that have occurred at Willow and 12 in <br />1991, 1992 and during the first month of 1993. This information <br />indicates that 56.5% of the accidents at the intersection were <br />caused by people trying to make a left hand turn. The information <br />also indicates the incidence of accidents has been reduced <br />substantially in 1993 compared to 1992.