5.3. SR 09-22-2003 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Howard R, Green Company September 12, 2003 File: 900760CSM Mr. Pat Klaers City Administrator City of Elk River 13065 Orono Parkway Elk River, MN 55330 RE: COUNTY ROAD 12/TVVIN LAKES ROAD INTERSECTION SIGNAL WARRANT STUDY Dear Mr. Klaers: As was discussed at the last department head meeting, Jeff Beahen, Police Chief, has talked with me about the procedure to start the installation of a traffic signal at the intersection of County Road 12 and Twin Lakes Road. The Police Chief has indicated that they are experiencing an increasing number of traffic accidents. To date, I do not believe that any of them have involved sedous bodily injury or fatalities. The Police Chief is concerned that as traffic grows in the area, they will continue to experience the larger number of traffic accidents, with potentially increasing severity. As you are aware, this intersection is three legs County jurisdiction (County Road 12 both directions and Twin Lakes Road to the north), and one leg City jurisdiction (Twin Lakes Road to the south). As you are also aware, the first step in installing a signal is preparing a Signal Justification Report, which measures eight different warrants for the installation of a signal. These warrants range from total amount of traffic, amount of turning vehicles each direction, and amount of accidents. The warrants generally measure whether there are situations at the intersection, such as traffic delays or traffic accidents, that could be lessened or eliminated by the installation of the signal. Although three of the four legs are under County jurisdiction, the traffic that generally is causing the accident history at this intersection is likely generated by the residential developments and/or commercial and industrial developments near the intersection. As such, my recommendation would be to have the City undertake the warrant study to determine whether or not there are enough warrants met to justify the installation of a signal. If so, I would then recommend presenting this information to Sherbume County and discussing the most efficient way of getting a signal programmed and installed at the intersection. Generally the cost of preparing a signal justifications report, including doing traffic counts and tuming movement counts, along with accident record analysis and preparing the report, is approximately $3,000. My hope would be that if the City expends this money and a signal is justified and ultimately installed at the intersection, the City could recoup their initial investment from the 25 percent of the project that they should pay for based on legs of the intersection. Please advise me how you would like me to proceed with this issue. Sincerely, Howard R. Green Company' Terry J. Mabrer, P.E. Ltr-091003-Klaers 1326 Energy Park Drive · St. Paul, MN 55108 ° 651/644-4389 fax 651/644-9446 toll free 888/368-4389