Plan pulls plug on stoplight

Left-hand turn lanes in all four directions on J Street will not be a cure-all, cautioned one McCook City Councilman at the regular meeting Monday night.

But it will help ease the congestion of traffic that occurs daily at West Fifth and J, especially before and after school. The McCook City Council unanimously approved the plan upon the recomendation of Greg Wolford, engineer for the project.

A traffic light had been discussed to relieve the traffic at the intersection, with $100, 000 included in the budget for a light as part of the J Street improvement project, scheduled to begin this year.

But several studies done on the intersection traffic revealed that although a light would reduce motorist congestion on West Fifth, it would lead to traffic jams for those on West J.

About 6,000 cars travel through the intersection during a 12-hour period, Wolford said, with 563 cars on West J and 201 on West Fifth between the peak times of 7:30-8:30 a.m., and 330 on J and 296 on West Fifth between 3:30-4:30 p.m.

The object in designing streets is to move traffic as efficiently as possible, he told the council, and a street light would prove to be detrimental. Traffic would move faster on West Fifth with a street light but it would have the opposite effect on J Street, where it would cause more delays for motorists.

Instead, several other improvements will be made using the budgeted $100,000, including installing left-hand turn lanes in all four directions on J Street, which would accommodate four cars. Other improvements will be widening the street by five feet on the south side, from Westridge to the alley between West Fourth and Fifth and extending the no parking zone on West Fifth from the west side to 220 feet on the east side.

The new no-parking zone will affect about four homeowners on West Fifth, with whom Wolford said he or his staff will visit in the near future.

A variety of other variables were looked at in reviewing traffic at the intersection, he said, including the number of accidents, with the last accident occurring about three years ago.

The bottom line, he said, is that that traffic at the intersection does not justify a street light.

Still, he conceded that traffic at peak times was problem and that the left-hand turn lanes and widening the street should help to alleviate that.

Councilman Aaron Kircher wanted to make clear that although the new lanes will make driving easier, people shouldn't expect no traffic at all.

"It will still be tough; this isn't a fix-all," he warned.