Last week, residents on Smith Terrace complained to the Lloyd Town Board about a lack of sight distance when trying to get out onto Tillson Avenue. The entire area was part of a 15 year-long realignment project that was recently completed.  

 

Supervisor Dave Plavchak invited Tom Baird, of the engineering design firm of Barton & Loguidice, to attend the Town Board meeting to explain what happened and to offer possible solutions.

 

Baird said his firm returned to the roadway to investigate and take measurements and came up with a number of possible options. First,to shift the lanes slightly to the north, lower some of the walls and to regrade the lawns back and more on a slope as they were originally.

 

Second, to significantly lower some of the walls to reduce their height back to the original design, “but that would take away the flattening of the lawns and some of the things that were done during construction.”

 

Third, to narrow the lanes and shift them to the north, which would not require any modification to the walls, “but that would leave you with 10 foot travel lanes and a 4 foot shoulder on the south side as you’re going towards Route 9W.” 

 

Fourth to make Smith Terrace one-way, “and that would require just a few of the walls having a few courses removed and the top blocks put back on and the lawns graded slightly back to a slope for a portion of it.”

 

Baird said these possible solutions would increase the sight distances for drivers. Once an option is chosen by the Town Board, Baird would be able to provide an estimate of how long it will take to complete the work.  

 

Plavchak asked Baird how visibility problems arose, adding that sometimes designs can change during construction or a resident may request that their wall be made higher.

 

Baird explained that in the original design, larger blocks were slated to be installed but because they were not available they switched to smaller ones. Then the lawns that were modified still had to slope back and the wall tied into them. He said because the smaller blocks were easy to handle, people asked why couldn’t they have flat lawns in front and why can’t they build the walls up slightly.

 

Baird said, “it was missed that raising a wall would cause that much of a sight distance [issue]. So in trying to help make it better with the front lawns and all of that, we ended up having a problem with the sight distance that was not foreseen during construction. So that is how we got here and we accept responsibility for that; it was a modification during construction that didn’t go the right way but had the right intention.” Baird said Barton & Loguidice will cover all costs related to whatever option the Town Board chooses to fix the sight distance problem.

 

During public comment, many residents said they were opposed to making Smith Terrace a one-way street due to the increase in traffic that would occur and the fact that many children live and play in this area. There are upper and lower intersections of Smith Terrace with Tillson Avenue because it loops back around. One resident pointed out that homeowners on Tillson Avenue between upper and lower Smith Terrace are also having zero sight distance challenges. Another suggestion was to put a stop sign at the upper Smith Terrace intersection with Tillson Avenue to discourage speeding and also  establishing a crosswalk.

 

The Town Board made it clear they are listening to the public and will be working closely with Barton & Loguidice to determine a long term solution to the sight distance issues.