By DENNIS WYATT

The Bulletin

Stop signs are in the future of Woodward Avenue motorists at Pillsbury Road.

Pelagic Engineering has started a $314,150  safety improvement projects along the Woodward Avenue corridor.

The project includes:

uInstalling solar powered LED stop signs at Woodward and Pillsbury as well as doing striping work.

uInstalling high visibility crosswalk with overhead flashing beacon system and LED signs at the intersection of Woodward Avenue and Wellington Avenue.

uInstalling high visibility crosswalk and flashing beacon system at the intersection of Woodward and Pagola avenues.

The three-way stop at Pillsbury Road’s T-intersection with Woodward Avenue is being triggered by new development. That said the speed of traffic on Woodward between Van Ryn Road and Atherton Drive has been a bone of contention for residents.

Although speed surveys show that 85 percent of the traffic doesn’t exceed the posted speed limit of 45 mph, residents have said it is difficult to turn onto or cross Woodward due to the 15 percent that exceeds the posted speed limit.

The in-ground crosswalk flashers on the Woodward Avenue crosswalk at Wellington have not worked for 30 months after being in place for a decade. The city determined repairing the system was not a wise move given the cost and how overhead flashers are more effective at getting the attention of drivers.

The city responded in the fall of 2016 to concerns of students crossing busy Woodward at Pagola from new homes to reach Veritas School. Within weeks of parents contacting the city about their concerns a crosswalk along with solar powered flashers were put in place as an interim measure at the council’s direction. It is now being replaced with the higher profile flashing beacon over the roadway

The city opted to lump the three projects together  in a bid to get the work done at a lower cost due to the economy of scale.