South Haven Council Backs MDOT Studies

southhavencityhall1-17
southhavencityhall1-17

South Haven city staff has been authorized by the city council to support a study by the Michigan Department of Transportation of the intersection of Phoenix Street and Blue Star Highway. Public Works director Bill Hunter will take 10 years of crash data for the intersection to MDOT.

“Of the 10 years of accidents at this intersection, there have been 121 crashes. 93.6% resulted in zero injuries and zero fatalities. With traffic studies like this, that is one thing they’ll take in to account, but it’s not everything. They’re going to do a level of service. They’re going to measure existing points of turns, so this is just one of the factors that they’re going to use.” says Hunter.

The study, along with a separate one of speed along the Phoenix Street corridor, will be done in the next few years.

“They’re going to wait to do any kind of study until the peak of the summer. They can’t simulate that on a program, so they’re gonna come at the peak of summer, and they take those turning movements and traffic counts for the corridor and those intersections and put them into a program to do simulations.”

Hunter says he has told MDOT for years of the desire to get the study done of the intersection.