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Aurora Road intersections get engineering review
(by Sue Reid - January 20, 2011)
Aurora Road intersections get engineering review
By SUE REID
Solon City Council's safety and public properties committee has directed the city's traffic engineer to take a comprehensive look at Aurora Road (Route 43), between the Solar Shopping Center and Liberty Road.
Traffic Engineer Kevin Westbrooks is to conduct a simulation analysis to see whether traffic signals or something else can be done to improve access in that area. The main focus, he said, will be in the area of Portz Parkway, Ayelshire Drive and the Carrington Court senior-housing complex.
There are no traffic lights where those streets connect with Aurora Road.
Councilman Richard A. Bell had sent a memo to the committee proposing the traffic study. He said he has received requests from senior residents living in Carrington Court and those in the Ayleshire development regarding the need to provide a safer exits from their residential areas onto Aurora Road.
The major complaint, Mr. Bell said, is the constant line of traffic heading east toward Liberty Road, making it nearly impossible to make left turns out of the developments to go west on Aurora Road. Residents have complained of being "trapped," having to wait extended periods of time to exit those areas and of traffic backups that block the box of the intersections and the view of drivers, he said.
"The consequences of this congestion are residents taking undue risk to themselves, their passengers and oncoming traffic, should they enter the moving traffic queue," Mr. Bell said.
Mr. Westbrooks said the city has done a number of things in terms of looking at that area over the years. A traffic computer simulation was done of Portz Parkway and Aurora Road, and the previous traffic engineer did a study at Portz Parkway.
But nothing has been done since the Carrington Court development was completed, Councilman William I. Russo said. "We were waiting for that to get done." Also delaying a study was the possibility of a connector road from Aurora Road to Solon Road to help with traffic issues and as part of the since-abandoned Coral lifestyle-center proposal, he said.
The potential redevelopment of the Giant Eagle supermarket and the Solar Center shopping plaza was another reason to wait on the study, Mr. Russo said.
"The proposed traffic study should be comprehensive and include not only the number of cars traveling Aurora Road in both directions at varying hours, but also the time gaps as well as the number of cars at each entry point attempting to enter traffic," Mr. Bell said. "The study should explore all options and solutions."
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