May 29—OTTUMWA — After listening to valid views from residents of both Madison Avenue and 55th Street, the Wapello County Board of Supervisors reached a unanimous decision.
Do nothing, at least temporarily.
Supervisors denied a motion to vacate a portion of Madison Avenue where it leads to U.S. Highway 63 after a public hearing during a rare evening meeting Tuesday at the courthouse. Instead, they will ask for a 90-day embargo on the road, which will lower the weight limit per vehicle on the deteriorating highway.
Different people talked about the same concerns, but had different ideas about how to solve them. Some were in favor of closing it, while others cited potentially lower property values if it closed. However, all their concerns were rooted in safety in the residential area south of the city limits.
“We are not just a few random houses in Wapello County. This area was an approved subdivision and I am against closing it because for me and all of us who live on 55th, Madison is the safe route home and a good alternative for turn off the highway when it’s busy,” resident Kristi McDowell told the board “Since this all started with the petition (which is being closed), I prepared my own petition so those of us on 55th can have a voice. “
One of the reasons for the decision to close was because of high truck speeds and road erosion, as stated by Ron Harness, a resident of Madison Avenue who first proposed the idea about a month ago to open a section to close the road to the supervisors. and formed a petition to place the item on the agenda. He reiterated his views during the public hearing.
“I don’t believe anyone on 55th is going to have to deal with semi traffic driving by their house,” he said. ‘I literally saw the highway falling apart. An overlay will be needed. The speed of these trucks is sometimes over 100 km per hour. I say it’s a win-win situation for the province to close the highway. an overlay, it will probably last well over 15 years with the minimum amount of traffic.”
Ottumwa Community School District teacher Ben Canny, another Madison Avenue resident, spoke about the financial toll his family would have to pay if the intersection were closed.
“We will have to drive an additional nine miles every day to get our children to and from school every day, which at current gas prices will cost well over $300 a year,” he said in prepared remarks. “The closure could have a negative impact on our property values because our house is now at the end of a cul-de-sac and the highway is our backyard.
“Closing the intersection will not repair the road. It is likely that the closure will make it less of a priority. The most critical concern I have is the impact on emergency services. I respectively request that the county supervisors review this decision to close the intersection to reconsider closing.”
John Trucano said the road is a danger to his family of runners and wanted to see it closed.
“It’s kind of dangerous to run down that road. The traffic is flying down that road and they consider it a highway,” said Trucano, who lives on Madison Avenue. “It’s very narrow compared to a lot of the roads you drive on in the city. I would say the health of the people on that road improves when it’s closed.”
According to District Engineer Jeff Skalberg, an average of 920 vehicles used the road each day, according to a 2022 traffic count from the Iowa Department of Transportation.
Skalberg said repairing the road from the city limits to U.S. Highway 63 is part of the county’s five-year road plan, but no significant steps will be taken until fiscal year 2026. market financing for repairs; the entire 2.6-mile stretch would cost about $1.8 million, which the county would have to find in its budget.
“I recommend looking at the 90-day embargo and setting the limit at £10,000 or £20,000,” he said. “There are no restrictions on trucks under that weight, but anything under that weight can travel on that road.”
Once an embargo is in place, the province can renew it every 90 days. Several residents asked to simply lower the speed limit, but Skalberg “strongly cautioned against that” because a DOT study into measuring road speeds would likely increase it.
“You could set the speed limit, but you would have to have a technical study done, and that would probably set the speed at 90 km/h,” he said. “The study recommends setting the speed limit at the 85th percentile of the speed at which people travel. If people are speeding, that will cause their advisory to go up, not slower.”
Skalberg also suggested that residents in that area request that the DOT create a left turn lane onto Madison Avenue from the south as part of the ongoing study of the US Highway 63 corridor.
“But they won’t do it unless you complain about it,” he said.
Ultimately, the supervisors unanimously voted down the resolution, so the path remains open until it is embargoed.
“We’ll continue to work on different things we can do, in terms of widening, and I’m interested in other engineering feats that can be done,” Supervisor Brian Morgan said. “I think an embargo is definitely appropriate, so if we can get that quickly, that would be appreciated. I think everyone would be in favor of that.”
— Chad Drury can be reached at cdrury@ottumwacourier.com and on Twitter @ChadDrury
