MDOT traffic study set for third week of July
The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) will continue its traffic study this month with traffic counts scheduled for the third week of July.
MDOT will set up hose counters in all directions and manually record activity at the intersection. MDOT staff will spend the day counting the vehicles that turn, and what direction, as well as the vehicles that drive through.
On June 11, MDOT switched the traffic control signal at Third and Erie in downtown Rogers City as part of a 90-to 120-day evaluation period.
Steve Conradson, traffic and safety engineer at MDOT’s Alpena office, said the traffic count will last eight hours. It will be from 7 to 9 a.m., 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 to 6 p.m.
“It’s our standard counting period,” said Conradson. “We look at those time periods as our busier time periods.”
He said the date would depend on the construction project in town.
“They are working on the M-68 legs and I think we are planning on the week of July 14, we’ll be doing the counts,” said Conradson. It could end up being the only one.
“We’ll have to see if our data is good,” said Conradson. “If we feel like there were construction delays that would shift traffic patterns, we may have to do another count.”
Conradson said a 2007 study done as a part of MDOT’s optimization program revealed that the traffic light in Rogers City was no longer meeting the volume requirements set forth by MDOT and flagged the light to be watched during the next study.
A study was done in June 2012 and the traffic counts at the light again did not meet that warranted requirements set forth by MDOT. The meeting Tuesday is an initial meeting to discuss the next steps and the future of Presque Isle County’s only stoplight.
The light maintenance and energy costs are between $700 and $800 each year.
A new light, when MDOT modernizes equipment would cost between $110,000-130,000.
After the evaluation process, MDOT will make a decision on the light as it is along an MDOT trunk line.