Orange barrel update

Clarkston at M-24 to close, Adams/Gunn gets stop signs

As Lake Orion residents may have noticed, road construction season is in full bloom, yielding road closures and detour routes to navigate.
Road Commission for Oakland County projects include several areas in Lake Orion, and the RCOC warns drivers to expect delays.
“It is the RCOC’s goal to conduct road improvement projects in a way that interferes with traffic as little as possible,” according to project list released by the RCOC on Aug. 3.
Construction and closures include:
East and West bound Clarkston Road will be closed at Lapeer Road (M-24) for Michigan Dept. of Transportation construction from Aug. 14-28.
Eastbound traffic should take Joslyn Road to Silver Bell to Kern back to Clarkston Road. Westbound traffic should use Kern to Silver Bell to Joslyn, and back to Clarkston Road.
Construction on Silver Bell at M-24 is slated for completion Aug. 14, before the Clarkston Road project begins.
A four-way stop sign recently went in at the Adams and Gunn intersection, a move causing some frustration among residents on the RCOC’s Facebook page.
“The four-way stop was installed as an interim measure to address a serious crash issue. We don’t install four-way stops lightly, and we avoid them when possible,” an RCOC official commented, adding that the four-way stop is an interim measure while moving toward a permanent fix for the intersection.
“However, a permanent fix (either a traffic signal or a roundabout), will likely cost approximately $2 million, and we need to identify funding,” the RCOC added.
Other measures before a traffic signal could be installed would include turn lanes, “widening and reconstructing the intersection, and improve sight distance by reducing a hill. Both of those (widening and the hill cut) require that we purchase additional land adjacent to the road, which is both a costly and time-consuming process”
The stop signs were installed July 27.
For more information on road closures throughout Lake Orion and the county, visit the RCOC 2016 Road Projects listing at www.rcocweb.org or www.facebook/RoadComm.
-Jim Newell

One response to “Orange barrel update”

  1. The four-way stop now backs traffic up all the way past Silverbell in the afternoons. With the extra traffic being forced via Adams/Silverbell by the continuing Lapeer construction, one wonders why this had to be done right now…

    The Lapeer work continues to be horrendous. Those of us who live on the east side of Lapeer on Silverbell now either have to go east over to Squirrel, down to Dutton, fight our way around the michigan left and then through the Dutton intersection again to get to I-75, or turn right, go all the way up to Waldon, try to get into the stopped southbound traffic at the michigan left, and then queue with everyone else back through Silverbell….and with the new Pulte/Moceri construction everywhere, the traffic isn’t going to be getting any lighter.

Leave a Reply to Steve Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *