Many call for Rt. 82 repairs

Turn lanes are to be added on Howland-Wilson Road next year.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
HOWLAND -- Although improvements are expected in the area surrounding the site of a deadly traffic accident Monday, some believe it's not happening fast enough.
Residents and some public officials have been complaining for months about the traffic and the high number of accidents at state Routes 82 and 46. The intersection has been ranked second-worst in the county by the governor's office of highway safety.
A chain-reaction accident Monday evening about 100 yards away at Route 82 and Howland-Wilson Road killed one woman and injured several other people.
Authorities said the accident occurred where traffic on Route 82 is forced to slow quickly from highway speeds as it approaches the traffic light at Howland-Wilson Road.
The pileup is under investigation by the Ohio State Highway Patrol, which was still sorting out the details today.
Study
A study continues of the U.S. Route 422 corridor, bounded by state Route 11, King Graves Road, U.S. 422 and the area just west of North Road, said Kathleen Rodi of the Eastgate Regional Council of Governments.
That study, in the works for a couple of years, is to lead to recommendations for improvements for the whole area.
John Getchey, Eastgate executive director, said a meeting to update those interested in the project is set for Sept. 17. "It's to get everyone up to speed on all of the different studies," he said.
Officials have said the corridor study is expected to be done in about a year. Other work, meanwhile, has already started or is planned to address traffic problems.
An interim improvement project involves turn lanes on Howland-Wilson Road at Route 82. ODOT also plans to widen the left turns on Route 82 into the grassy meridian to address a sight distance problem, said Paula Putnam, an ODOT spokeswoman.
If two motorists, one driving a tractor-trailer and the other a car, are in the turning lanes on Route 82, facing each other, it may be difficult for the driver of the car to see the traffic behind the truck because of grass, Putnam said.
Narrowing the grassy area and widening the lane into it is aimed at improving that sight distance.
That project is expected to be done in 2004.
Another interim improvement project, adding a second left turn lane for northbound traffic on state Route 46 turning west onto state Route 82, where traffic regularly backs up, started a couple of months ago.
A left turn lane also is being added on the state Route 82 westbound exit ramp to 46 south.
Believes it will help
Howland Township Trustee Richard G. Clark believes the Howland-Wilson Road and Route 82/46 improvements will alleviate some of the problems.
"Tragically, while we're waiting for that to happen, two people were killed here recently," he said.
A 31-year-old Newton Falls man was killed in June when a tractor-trailer slammed into a line of stopped traffic on the eastbound exit ramp from 82 to 46.
Clark said he understands that it takes time when dealing with state and federal money to get projects funded and engineered.
Rodi said interim improvement projects are done in areas with high traffic volume, many accidents or congestion. "Those types of projects are continuously ongoing throughout our two counties," she said.
Some residents living near the scene of Monday's accident, which claimed the life of a Poland woman and left one man hospitalized, said they prefer the light that used to flash on Route 82, warning motorists that the traffic signal at the Howland-Wilson Road intersection was about to change to red.
In 1997, ODOT replaced that signal with a constantly flashing yellow caution light.
"The University of Cincinnati did a study that found those types of signals that flash only when a light is changing are more harmful than helpful," Putnam said.
Instead of persuading drivers to slow down, drivers would try to speed up to beat the light, she said.