Street committee discusses Fairfield?s three-lane street

The Washington Street Committee held its third and final meeting to discuss the lanes on West Madison Street Thursday. The Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) plans to pave West Madison from the intersection with Highway 1 to Second Avenue. That paving would take place in 2012. The DOT has suggested that when it paves the road, it paint new lines on West Madison to turn the street into a three-lane road, changing it from the four-lane road it is now. The DOT wants the Washington City Council to decide on a lane configuration this month.

Under a three-lane setup, the middle lane is reserved for left-turning traffic. It cannot be used for any other purpose. Ambulances are an exception, and they use the middle lane for an emergency.  

No one from the DOT attended Thursday?s meeting. However, the DOT sent a diagram of a three-lane road, which it said was similar to the three-lane road in Fairfield. Highway 34 once ran right through the heart of Fairfield. A few years ago, the DOT built a bypass to route Highway 34 south of Fairfield. Once the bypass was built, the DOT reconfigured old 34 (Burlington Avenue) from a four-lane road to a three-lane road.

Washington resident Marcy Murphy grew up in Jefferson County and visits Fairfield on a regular basis. She spoke at the meeting Thursday and urged the committee to stick with four lanes. She said the three-lane street in Fairfield is not a model Washington should follow.

?I haven?t talked to one person from that county who is happy with it,? said Murphy. ?I do not like it. I feel traffic is a lot more congested in town. It seems backed up all the time. There was a delay (getting onto 34) but it?s worse now.?

Murphy said motorists do not use the middle lane as intended. She said it is very difficult to enter Highway 34 from a side street. She said the drivers sit at the stop signs so long, waiting for a chance to enter, that they turn onto the middle lane, which they are not supposed to do.

Highway 34 also features a ?buffer area? which is a few feet wide between the outside lanes and the curb. Murphy said people walk in this buffer zone.

?Somebody?s going to get hit,? she said.   

Committee member Bob Shepherd said he doesn?t want people to walk in the buffer zone. He also said he doesn?t want bicyclists to use the sidewalk, so he said a bike lane might be a good idea.

Shepherd said he was disappointed in the diagram the DOT gave the committee. He wanted the DOT to draw what the road would look like at the intersection of West Madison and Highway 1. He was especially interested in how the reconfiguration would affect the two gas stations at that intersection ? Glandon?s Westside Service northeast of the intersection and Moore?s BP Amoco southeast of it.

The discussion of West Madison did not consume the committee?s entire meeting. The members also talked about the proposed sidewalk around Lincoln Elementary School. There are sidewalks south and west of the school but no sidewalk on either the north or east side.

Lincoln P.E. instructor Tim Balvanz has lobbied for the sidewalks so the students will have a place to go on their walks. On those days when the elementary students do not have P.E., their teachers take them on a walk around the school block for 10 minutes, but only when the ground is dry and free of ice.

Balvanz said that sidewalks around the perimeter of the school would allow the students to walk there all year long. It would also allow parents a place to drop off their children without making them walk through the lawn. Parents now drop their kids off on South Sixth Avenue, east of the school, and the kids walk through the grass to the school. In the winter, a walkway is shoveled from the school to South Sixth, but that walkway can turn to ice on cold days or back into mud on warm days. Under the proposal, a sidewalk would be installed on the east end and connect to the sidewalk on the south end.

The Parent/Teacher Group and a number of volunteers have raised the money for the project, which will cost between $13,000 and $15,000. The city has paid for the engineering and the gravel on the project, but all other costs have been borne by the outside groups. The committee voted to approve the sidewalk project, which will go to the city council for final approval Wednesday.

Balvanz said that if the council approves the sidewalk plan in a timely manner, the sidewalks could be finished before the end of this school year.