Madison Avenue Traffic Signal Project Slated

Green means go and red means stop. 

City council began an effort to proceed with caution — and some questions — during its preliminary discussion about the proposed traffic signalization project on Madison Avenue.

The estimated $2.5 million plan to upgrade the traffic signals on Madison Avenue — a project not unlike last summer’s undertaking on Detroit Avenue — is expected to begin in 2014.

Based on a recent traffic study, five of the 20 traffic signals on Madison Avenue are “unwarranted,” meaning that they would be removed unless Lakewood paid 100 percent of the local share to keep them.

“People will wonder why their streets will not get one, and their neighbors will,” said Shawn Juris, Ward 3 councilman and the chairman of the public works committee. “If we can help connect the dots, I think that would be good.” 

The traffic study was based on traffic counts and proximity to schools, said Bill Corrigan, the city’s division manager of engineering.

The traffic signals rated “unwarranted” are at Morrison Avenue; Belle Avenue; Clarence Avenue; Lewis Drive; and Lark Street.

However, the decisions on Lewis Drive and Belle Avenue haven’t been finalized yet. It seems as if the city may pay to keep the signals up at Lark Street and Morrison Avenue, and remove the light at Clarence Avenue.

Another traffic study is slated to take place at the Belle Avenue intersection because of its proximity and access to Lakewood Hospital, said Corrigan.

The $2.5 million project will be paid for, in part, by the Ohio Department of Transportation.

The administration also has plans to get started on a $2.5 million repaving of the entire length of Madison Avenue, however no date has been set to begin that project.