| At the last regular meeting of the Ironwood Township
Board it was mentioned that the Township had received a
copy of a letter sent to Marvin Marks by MDOT. The MDOT
letter was in reply to correspondence regarding the
intersection of US Hwy 2 and Country Club Road. In that
letter Mr. Marks had expressed his concerns about the
lack of a traffic light at the Wal-Mart intersection.
IronwoodInfo has received a copy of the letter
through a Freedom of Information Request. The
following is a report on the contents of that letter.
In his reply Randy-Van Portfliet, Superior Region
Engineer Stated " that On June 1, 2007, Michigan
Department of Transportation (MDOT) personnel held a
meeting with representatives of the Gogebic County Board
of Commissioners, Gogebic County Road Commission,
Ironwood Township, and the City of Ironwood. General
procedures regarding signal studies and signal
installation were discussed. "
Mr. Van Portfliet, went on to say that "When we sought
feedback from the group regarding the optimal time to
perform the signal study, the consensus of the group was
that the signal study should be performed when Wal-Mart
was open, school was in session, and the Country Club
was open. It was stated that this would be the time when
the greatest traffic volumes would occur and create the
best opportunity for the intersection to meet signal
warrants. This led to MDOT agreeing to schedule the
signal study in mid-May."
"On June 7, 2007, a public meeting was held at Gogebic
Community College. Again, signal studies and signal
installation procedures were discussed. The mid-May time
frame for a signal study was discussed and no one
brought up any objections to this schedule." Van
Portfliet explained.
According to the state engineer "MDOT will perform a
review of the intersection to determine if the timing of
the signal study should be advanced. If needed, MDOT
will schedule the formal signal study and inform the
local entities of our decision.
There has already had two accidents at the
intersections. According city sources at that June
meeting Wal-Mart agreed to pay for a substantial share
of the cost to install a traffic signal.
The Wisconsin DOT has installed traffic signals at both
the Ashland and Rhinelander Wal-Mart locations. The
Michigan DOT has not yet installed a traffic light at
either Houghton or Ironwood locations. |
