City Commission approves $5,000 removal of Bellows Street mini-circle
Mount Pleasant residents will see a mini-circle-free Bellows Street in the approaching weeks, just two years after the circle was originally installed to slow down traffic.
City commissioners first expressed interest in removing what was called a “much hated piece of property” last October and instructed city staff to employ an engineering advising firm to study the effectiveness of the circle.
At a commission meeting last month, representatives from Orchard Hiltz & McCliment, Inc., recommended alternative ways to guide traffic on Bellows with a potential three-phase plan — the first phase including removal of the mini-circle and installation of a speed table.
Each part of the first phase was estimated to cost $5,000. On Monday, commissioners discussed amending the 2012 budget to allocate both amounts, before ultimately rejecting purchasing a speed table and approving only removal of the mini-circle in a 4-2 vote. Commissioner Rick Rautanen was absent.
Commissioners Sharon Tilmann and Nancy English were the first to dissent purchase of a speed table, which is a long, raised and movable traffic-calming device.
“I can just hear once this device goes in, it’s going to be, ‘What on earth are they doing now?’ I don’t know there’s a real buy-in from the public in general that that is a high-priority corridor …” Tilmann said. “We made a mistake when we approved that traffic circle, and I almost feel we were sold a bill of goods on that. And I’m not ready to buy another mistake.”
The circle was constructed in 2010 at a cost of about $75,000, according to previously published reports. However, when it was first tested, it was found not to be accessible for ladder trucks, costing the city an extra $2,500 in adjustments.
Commissioners had approved the circle after speeds on Bellows had been recorded as high as or higher than 40 miles per hour.
‘Playing traffic engineer’
OHM in its study of Bellows found the circle to be mostly ineffective, though it slowed down west-bound traffic. If the mini-circle is removed without any calming device while city officials consider the other two recommended phases, Roger Rousse, the city’s director of Public Works, advised city commissioners speeds will likely increase.
Mayor Bruce Kilmer said it then becomes a matter of safety and that, at $5,000, the table wasn’t too expensive, but a good investment.
“We got burned on the traffic circle, but that doesn’t mean that every time our engineers tell us something we need to start playing engineers ourselves,” he said. “They told us that this is needed ... that we can reuse it over and over again, and for us to reject traffic engineers and our staff, I think is us getting into business we should not be getting in, and I strongly support us buying this table and using it.”
English said she preferred purchasing the speed table at a later time, such as when Central Michigan University’s north campus construction projects are finished, because of the city’s uncertainty of how future circumstances could affect Bellows traffic flow and also plans to calm it.
Because of CMU’s stake, Tilmann said she preferred to wait and see if the university would partner with the city over future construction decisions. She added, “I’m not trying to play traffic engineer.”
City staff can currently make purchases less than $10,000 without getting approval from the City Commission, which Commissioner Jon Joslin pointed out. However, when circle removal packaged with purchase of the speed table came to a vote, it was not approved.
Kilmer and Commissioner Jim Holton were the two to vote against only removal of the traffic circle without any other device installed to slow down traffic.
With the 2012 budget amended to include the $5,000, commissioners will consider options for Bellows at a later meeting.
