Y ? Y? Y?
Back in the late 1950's the DOH decided to make a Y out of the intersection of Alt. 10 and Route 10. This was just shortly before I got my first driver's license. Previously there was just Alt. 10 being a narrow two lane road that came to a perpendicular end at Route 10, another narrow two lane road, with a stop sign for Alt. 10.
There were occasional serious crashes due to this configuration, as both are state highways and carried a fairly high volume of traffic. Alt. 10 was the quick way from Route 10, a north-south route going from Huntington to Logan and beyond to US 60 about three miles away to the northeast. As the Corridors and interstates had not been constructed, it carried all traffic going between those destinations.
With the construction of the Y, the number of, and seriousness of, crashes was lessened dramatically. The Y had a lane from Route 10 northbound onto Alt. 10
with a corresponding lane for Route 10 southbound traffic off Alt. 10. At the same time, the Y also had one lane for northeast bound Alt. 10 traffic coming off Route 10 with a corresponding lane for northbound traffic onto Route 10 off Alt. 10. And of course it also had lanes for northbound and southbound traffic on Route 10. Simple. There were stop signs for all traffic coming off Alt. 10 onto Route 10 and a stop sign for southbound traffic turning onto Alt. 10, at the end of the Y.
Simple, easy to enter and exit and the end result was the speed up of all traffic with few crashes as long as people obeyed the stop signs. There were a few horrific crashes, as with any intersection where through traffic has the right of way and some people will always attempt to beat the oncoming traffic. But, all in all, a very safe intersection, certainly an improvement over the straight line perpendicular stops.
Then came the advent of rolling stops. And the number of crashes increased. And drivers who normally stop for stop signs learned to slow down before traversing the Y, particularly paying attention to the south-bounds turning onto Alt. 10 and the northbound Alt. 10's turning onto Route 10. Why those in particular, I can't say, only that that was the way it was.
About a month ago, someone in the DOH approved a change in the intersection, back to the old perpendicular configuration. With disastrous results. The Y was ripped out and the old style intersection was reinstalled. And last week a man from Logan County was killed and his wife seriously injured when they pulled out into the path of a northbound ambulance.
Now let me tell you about how the intersection was rebuilt. They left in the lane for right turns off Alt. 10 for northbound traffic. The lanes were wide. And a stop sign was placed at the far right, in the grass at the right side of the right turn lane, out of the normal vision of the driver wanting to make a left turn to go south on Route 10. I know, I drive the road almost every day and for two days I looked for a stop sign. I finally found it, hidden behind some other signs. And I only found it because I live about a half-mile from the intersection, I knew that I had to stop. There was only that one obscure sign, no warning that a stop was required ahead anywhere on Alt. 10.
The Route 10 to Alt. 10 route is one favored by drivers of semis coming north on Route 10 and heading toward the interstate going east from Barboursville and for US 60 commercial traffic. They did not widen that lane, instead forcing semis to make a swerve into the southbound lanes of Route 10 to make the turn. And even then, they would come into the lane for those wishing to make a left turn southbound. The intersection is slightly banked as it is in a slight rounding curve, so anyone making a turn left onto Route 10 or a right off Route 10 is somewhat atilt as they do so.
After the crash, of course, there was an investigation conducted by the Cabell County Sheriff's Department. The result was that the man from Logan County was at fault as he disobeyed the stop sign and pulled out into the path of the northbound ambulance. The report indicated the stop sign was there and was ignored. The Chief Deputy also stated that the reconfiguration of the intersection played no part in the crash.
Strange. Everyone I know has indicated that the reconfiguration was the immediate cause of the crash. They also aver that there was no logical reason to change the intersection, but that enforcement of the existing signs by the Sheriff's Department would have made the intersection safer for all drivers. That, of course, would mean that the deputies would also have to stop. I have personally witnessed deputies driving through the signs without so much as a second glance. But the most ignored of all the signs were the ones controlling? traffic going north on Route 10 off Alt. 10 and controlling? traffic coming from southbound Route 10 onto Alt. 10. Any driver assuming these two signs would be obeyed was placing their life in danger.
Be that as it may, proper enforcement would have cured the problem , or at the least, lessened the incidence. Since it was not done, all drivers now must pay for the disobedience of the few. Typical governmental interference and poor decision making by the DOH.
Now, to the crux--anyone driving in a construction zone must be extra careful and be willing to face abnormal delays. That does not obviate the responsibility of the DOH to ensure that proper signs are placed in the normal view of the driver. A man has died and his wife injured as the direct failure of the DOH to follow required procedures. Since the crash, the stop sign has been moved closer to the lanes of traffic, and, a NEW sign has been placed permanently on the approach to the intersection warning of a stop ahead. A temporary sign is also alongside the approach some one hundred yards prior the the permanent sign warning of the required stop.
I really do appreciate the construction work that has been done to the two major highways, the widening and gravel being added to the edges. But the intersection was fine the way it was. It was an unwise and life threatening decision. It was a wrong decision. There now sits a piece of land some twenty to thirty yards wide and even longer that is completely unused that has been planted in grass. I wonder how much of it will remain, as the semis are using a fair portion of it closest to the road to make their turns. As the guy used to say, I PREDICT--that a turn lane will be added for the semis coming north on Route 10 and turning onto Alt. 10 toward US 60. And that will re-form the Y, except that the left turn lane onto southbound Route 10 will be in the middle , still perpendicular to Route 10, thereby retaining the worst of the redesign, and the worst of the decision.
Funny. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
As an aside--when they widened the road past my house--
The road makes a sharp left turn at the top of the rise above my land. There is a slip on the upper side of the road across from me. They widened the road on my side all the way up to and actually under the guardrail, extending it about a foot-and-a-half. That foot-and-a-half doesn't sound like much, but it was enough to warn a driver who slipped off the road to get the vehicle back into the roadway. Now the driver will just go ahead and hit the guardrail, causing more expense to the driver and the DOH. On the other side, they paved almost into the ditch, and with the gravel, have put the road about four inches higher than it was previously. That I like, as it should divert some of the water away from the road. But when the ditch fills up, which it will, it will allow much more water to pour over the road and down the hill into my yard. So it looks like I will get to install that drainage tile after all.
There were occasional serious crashes due to this configuration, as both are state highways and carried a fairly high volume of traffic. Alt. 10 was the quick way from Route 10, a north-south route going from Huntington to Logan and beyond to US 60 about three miles away to the northeast. As the Corridors and interstates had not been constructed, it carried all traffic going between those destinations.
With the construction of the Y, the number of, and seriousness of, crashes was lessened dramatically. The Y had a lane from Route 10 northbound onto Alt. 10
with a corresponding lane for Route 10 southbound traffic off Alt. 10. At the same time, the Y also had one lane for northeast bound Alt. 10 traffic coming off Route 10 with a corresponding lane for northbound traffic onto Route 10 off Alt. 10. And of course it also had lanes for northbound and southbound traffic on Route 10. Simple. There were stop signs for all traffic coming off Alt. 10 onto Route 10 and a stop sign for southbound traffic turning onto Alt. 10, at the end of the Y.
Simple, easy to enter and exit and the end result was the speed up of all traffic with few crashes as long as people obeyed the stop signs. There were a few horrific crashes, as with any intersection where through traffic has the right of way and some people will always attempt to beat the oncoming traffic. But, all in all, a very safe intersection, certainly an improvement over the straight line perpendicular stops.
Then came the advent of rolling stops. And the number of crashes increased. And drivers who normally stop for stop signs learned to slow down before traversing the Y, particularly paying attention to the south-bounds turning onto Alt. 10 and the northbound Alt. 10's turning onto Route 10. Why those in particular, I can't say, only that that was the way it was.
About a month ago, someone in the DOH approved a change in the intersection, back to the old perpendicular configuration. With disastrous results. The Y was ripped out and the old style intersection was reinstalled. And last week a man from Logan County was killed and his wife seriously injured when they pulled out into the path of a northbound ambulance.
Now let me tell you about how the intersection was rebuilt. They left in the lane for right turns off Alt. 10 for northbound traffic. The lanes were wide. And a stop sign was placed at the far right, in the grass at the right side of the right turn lane, out of the normal vision of the driver wanting to make a left turn to go south on Route 10. I know, I drive the road almost every day and for two days I looked for a stop sign. I finally found it, hidden behind some other signs. And I only found it because I live about a half-mile from the intersection, I knew that I had to stop. There was only that one obscure sign, no warning that a stop was required ahead anywhere on Alt. 10.
The Route 10 to Alt. 10 route is one favored by drivers of semis coming north on Route 10 and heading toward the interstate going east from Barboursville and for US 60 commercial traffic. They did not widen that lane, instead forcing semis to make a swerve into the southbound lanes of Route 10 to make the turn. And even then, they would come into the lane for those wishing to make a left turn southbound. The intersection is slightly banked as it is in a slight rounding curve, so anyone making a turn left onto Route 10 or a right off Route 10 is somewhat atilt as they do so.
After the crash, of course, there was an investigation conducted by the Cabell County Sheriff's Department. The result was that the man from Logan County was at fault as he disobeyed the stop sign and pulled out into the path of the northbound ambulance. The report indicated the stop sign was there and was ignored. The Chief Deputy also stated that the reconfiguration of the intersection played no part in the crash.
Strange. Everyone I know has indicated that the reconfiguration was the immediate cause of the crash. They also aver that there was no logical reason to change the intersection, but that enforcement of the existing signs by the Sheriff's Department would have made the intersection safer for all drivers. That, of course, would mean that the deputies would also have to stop. I have personally witnessed deputies driving through the signs without so much as a second glance. But the most ignored of all the signs were the ones controlling? traffic going north on Route 10 off Alt. 10 and controlling? traffic coming from southbound Route 10 onto Alt. 10. Any driver assuming these two signs would be obeyed was placing their life in danger.
Be that as it may, proper enforcement would have cured the problem , or at the least, lessened the incidence. Since it was not done, all drivers now must pay for the disobedience of the few. Typical governmental interference and poor decision making by the DOH.
Now, to the crux--anyone driving in a construction zone must be extra careful and be willing to face abnormal delays. That does not obviate the responsibility of the DOH to ensure that proper signs are placed in the normal view of the driver. A man has died and his wife injured as the direct failure of the DOH to follow required procedures. Since the crash, the stop sign has been moved closer to the lanes of traffic, and, a NEW sign has been placed permanently on the approach to the intersection warning of a stop ahead. A temporary sign is also alongside the approach some one hundred yards prior the the permanent sign warning of the required stop.
I really do appreciate the construction work that has been done to the two major highways, the widening and gravel being added to the edges. But the intersection was fine the way it was. It was an unwise and life threatening decision. It was a wrong decision. There now sits a piece of land some twenty to thirty yards wide and even longer that is completely unused that has been planted in grass. I wonder how much of it will remain, as the semis are using a fair portion of it closest to the road to make their turns. As the guy used to say, I PREDICT--that a turn lane will be added for the semis coming north on Route 10 and turning onto Alt. 10 toward US 60. And that will re-form the Y, except that the left turn lane onto southbound Route 10 will be in the middle , still perpendicular to Route 10, thereby retaining the worst of the redesign, and the worst of the decision.
Funny. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
As an aside--when they widened the road past my house--
The road makes a sharp left turn at the top of the rise above my land. There is a slip on the upper side of the road across from me. They widened the road on my side all the way up to and actually under the guardrail, extending it about a foot-and-a-half. That foot-and-a-half doesn't sound like much, but it was enough to warn a driver who slipped off the road to get the vehicle back into the roadway. Now the driver will just go ahead and hit the guardrail, causing more expense to the driver and the DOH. On the other side, they paved almost into the ditch, and with the gravel, have put the road about four inches higher than it was previously. That I like, as it should divert some of the water away from the road. But when the ditch fills up, which it will, it will allow much more water to pour over the road and down the hill into my yard. So it looks like I will get to install that drainage tile after all.
posted by tanstaafl | 7:30 AM
3 Comments:
I was wondering when you would get around to writing about that. Isn't it absolutely hilarious (sarcasm intended) how suddenly the stop signs appear AFTER a crash that, while maybe the one driver had some fault, but the bulk of the fault should lay on the shoulders of our wonderful (much sarcasm intended) DOH???!!!
I would really like to know when they are planning to paint the lines on RT 10 where they have paved, b/c yours truly nearly drove off the mountain Friday night--and I was only saved by the fact that 10 mph was about as high as I would go, b/c you could not see the yellow dots in the center of the road, nor could you see the edge of the road in either lane, as well as fog making it impossible to see beyond the front of the vehicle.
Come to think of it, I think I will call DOH (yeah I know, good luck with that) and see just what the hell their plan for painting is....
And that was worth getting my BP worked up.....After perusing about 3 different phone books, only to discover that none held any LOCAL numbers for DOT., I then got back online and went to the website, where after several minutes of fruitless searching, I finally typed CABELL CO. into the search bar and eventually got to the Huntington numbers. I call the superintendent's office, was referred to the sign shop, whose direct quote was "we haven't done road painting for 20 years." They referred me to construction, who, when the phone was answered, informed me he was in Logan Co. at the moment and would have to call back to base to find out when the painting was planned. I told him I hoped he found out before I did run off the damn road this time, and no he was not to call me back, I would call him back at my convenience, as I am working night shift and was going back to sleep.
State government and our tax dollars at work. Dontcha just love it.....
I must have been away from that area for a few weeks, because when I drove up that way maybe two weeks ago I was surprised by the change. I was there again yesterday, and I still didn't like it.
The new arrangement does not work when you're on Route 10 headed south, and it does not work when you're on Alt. 10 turning right.
I cannot understand how the new traffic pattern is superior to the old one in any way.
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