Traffic Study Planned for Requested Stop Signs at Intersection

Posted on July 8, 2019
Author Anita Goodan, WKVI

A traffic study is planned in order to move forward with a request for a four-way stop at the intersection of County Road 250 W. and 700 S. in North Judson.

Joe Peverelle asked for the Starke County Commissioners’ help in making the intersection a four-way stop for safety reasons.  Peverelle said there is a stop sign for traffic traveling east or west, but there is not a stop sign for traffic going north or south.

“On 250 W., you’ve got a rise and a fall,” explained Peverelle.  “The stop sign is 65 feet before the intersection.  It’s the same type of intersection where I lost my leg.  Then because of the terrain you have to pull ahead another 10 feet to be able to see if anything is coming from the north.”

Starke County Highway Superintendent Rik Ritzler said Purdue LTAP Specialist Laura Slusher will review the safety needs at that intersection before putting up any signs there.

“It’s very important that Purdue comes to look at that because it’s going to make the intersection more dangerous when we put the signs in because people are going to be going through those signs.  That’s a proven fact for about three to six months.  The danger of leaving the signs the way they are is worse than that.  There are things that we can do with ‘new traffic pattern ahead’ and ‘stop ahead’ signs and we do do that, but we need a traffic engineer to set that up because it probably was not set up at the beginning whenever that was there 30, 40 or 50 years ago,” commented Ritzler.

Ritzler said he will give an update on when the study will happen.

LTAP traffic studies are also anticipated to assess the safety at the intersections of 300 E. and Toto Road and 500 S. with 260 W.