If you’ve ever grown frustrated by the seemingly interminable wait to drive up the Park Street viaduct after a day at the beach or a trip to Silver Beach Pizza, Outpost Sports or the Compass Rose Fountain at Whirlpool Centennial Park, your future may be brighter after anticipated St. Joseph City Commission action tonight.
As part of the Park Street Bridge Traffic Improvements Project which has repaved the deck of the viaduct bridge and made other improvements, the city received and opened four bids for installation of a “No Left Turn When Flashing” sign on Lake Boulevard for eastbound traffic advancing up the hill from the waterfront.
Traffic sensors will be installed in the eastbound lane of Park Street, so that the flashers will activate when a traffic backup occurs on the Park Street Bridge.
City officials are recommending the low bid of $27,630 offered by Strain Electric Company of Wyoming in suburban Grand Rapids for the project which is designed to include a flashing yellow light and LED lights embedded in the No Left Turn sign as shown in the drawing included with this story on Moody on the Market.com.
Now, if you’re in a line of traffic planning to make a right hand turn onto Lake Boulevard at the top of the high but are being held up by a driver waiting for an opening into a left hand turn there, you will be rewarded with a flashing indicator that prevents the proposed left turn from being made.
Strain Electric is doing a lot of the work currently underway with new traffic lights throughout the city as well. The issue of the Park Street left turn prohibition is on the city’s consent agenda for tonight’s St. Joseph City Commission meeting at City hall.
