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Canfield officials: No more studies of Timber Run needed
CANFIELD
City officials said further studies will not be done on the controversial Timber Run Road, the passageway between Stonebridge and Westbury Park residential developments.
“We do all reviews of the subdivisions as they come through,” said Dave Tabak, Canfield city engineer and MS Consultants Inc. employee. “That particular area, the roadway part of the subdivision, was put in 10 to 15 years ago. All that review was done back then.”
Tabak said as far as the technical aspects are concerned, the crest and curve of Timber Run as well as the current speed limit are accurate for what the road should be.
“It met all the criteria at that time, and there is really no reason to go back and revisit that,” Tabak said.
Joe Warino, city manager, agreed. He said the road was built according to the original plan.
Timber Run provides passage between Westbury Park Development in Canfield Township and Stonebridge Development, in the city. City and township officials as well as residents have argued back and forth about the benefits and problems of the road closing or remaining open.
At the Feb. 17 meeting, Councilman Charles Tieche said the open road always was part of the subdeveloper’s 1990 plan and should remain open despite any inconvenience.
The arguments against keeping the road open were based upon high traffic volumes for homeowners in the Stonebridge development.
Although Warino also said further studies would be a waste of city money, he is looking into models for traffic calmers.
“We had questions raised whether the road would warrant a stop sign. It wouldn’t. We looked at sight distance and were assured that was done back then, as well,” Warino said. “But traffic calmers, they have them in the Columbus area.”
Traffic calmers are small islands of land in the middle of an intersection to slow down traffic.
Warino described the calmers as miniature roundabouts in the middle of an intersection to cause drivers to slow down and maneuver around them.
“We are looking for something that would be a good fit out there [Stonebridge] to stop and slow traffic once it hits the neighborhoods,” Warino said.
In addition to the traffic calmers, city Law Director Mark Fortunato said he was looking into drafting an ordinance restricting large trucks of three axles or more from using Timber Run.