Foley looking to make improvements to roadway safety

By Jessica Vaughn / jessica@gulfcoastmedia.com
Posted 4/23/18

FOLEY – With a growing city, Foley is looking to make improvements to the roadways in the area and take safety measures to make travel as accident-free as possible. To reach that goal, the city …

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Foley looking to make improvements to roadway safety

Posted

FOLEY – With a growing city, Foley is looking to make improvements to the roadways in the area and take safety measures to make travel as accident-free as possible. To reach that goal, the city council approved Burk-Kleinpeter Engineers to prepare an agreement where the company would evaluate specific intersections and roadways for potential safety improvements that have the opportunity for funding through ALDOT’s Highway Safety Improvement Program. Under the agreement, Burk-Kleinpeter, Inc. would assist in not only coming up with probable costs for the projects, but also help in preparing applications to submit to ALDOT for funding.

The grants are made available by the federal highways and administered by ALDOT, and are mostly driven by a benefit to cost analysis.

“Right now, the federal highways are highly in support of the roundabouts,” said Charles Weber with Burk-Kleinpeter, Inc. “The requirements there aren’t as strict, so right now is an opportunity to get safety funding for roundabouts.”

If the grant is received, the grant match can go up to 90 percent, covering most of the cost. The improvements to the roadways in discussion are in the city’s capital plan approximately two years out, which means if they’re able to get a grant for the project now, it frees up funds for another project down the line.

The concepts that have been worked up are for the W. Pride Drive at S. Pine Street intersection, W. Pride Drive between S. Pine Street and S. McKenzie Street roadway segment, and Foley Beach Express at County Road 12 intersection. All projects were discussed during the April 16 meeting, with primary focus on the improvements to Pride Drive, which would require a traffic count.

“There’s basically a traffic count at any roundabout you want to have so they can look at the compacity of the roundabout and make sure whatever design is created will pass the requirements for that specific roundabout,” said Weber. “The range depends on what kind of vehicles you have, and the one at Pride Drive we know a lot of Walmart trucks will come out of there, so that one is designed to handle a semi-truck. And of course, with it being big enough for a semi, it will be able to handle all the school buses that come through there.”

The traffic count at Pride Drive would need to be conducted before school ends to get accurate numbers, making it a top priority. The council is also keen on making the intersection at the Walmart entrance on W. Pride Drive safer.

“It gets dangerous with people shooting across to turn, and people are coming from every direction, so you have to watch everywhere,” said councilman Ralph Hellmich.

The council would also like to implement drainage improvements to the area to prevent water from pooling at the intersection during storms.

“In the back there’s no problem, it’s all modernized and it’s draining fine, but by the side entrance there is no drainage,” said Hellmich. While the funding would not include drainage projects, the council hopes to improve those issues as they improve the roadways.

Improvements made to Pride Drive and Pine Street will also be beneficial to emergency responders. Currently, first responders have a difficult time travelling the streets during high volume traffic, and one of the major issues for Foley Fire Department is the oak trees planted along the road.

“What we have to do is cheat over, so we’re taking the whole road, both lanes,” said Fire Chief Joey Darby. “You lose the effectiveness of the road just because of the growth of those trees, and height is always a concern of course with aerial getting through there.”

Many of the oak trees were memorial trees, but for the roundabout to become a reality, the council is prepared to take the matter public.

“If this is something we end up pursuing and if we get the grant, we’re going to have to do a lot of work on the tree aspect of it,” said councilman Charlie Ebert III. “Those were planted at the very beginning when the school was built, and some of them are memorial trees that we’re going to have to replace or relocate.”

Discussion was had about utilizing the west side of Pine Street to incorporate a row of live oaks, spaced out across the high school’s property.

“I would hate to hold up a safety project, because we’re going to end up having to repave Pride Drive and it’s going to be a losing cause,” said Hellmich. “The bigger those oak trees get, you know what’s going to happen. That left lane is going to stay torn up all the time.”

The council said if the project were to happen, they would reach out to all the families involved with the memorial trees and would work to replant or relocate the live oaks to a location that would be both safer for the roadways and the drivers who use them.

The council voted to go ahead with the traffic count and to enter into the agreement with Burk-Kleinpeter Engineers to apply for the grants, and further action will be taken at a later date once ALDOT’s decision is returned.