Directional and yield signs are taking a beating so far at the two new Reith Road roundabouts in Kent.
Drivers are knocking down or bending the signs on narrow metal poles as they negotiate the turns along Reith Road at the intersections of Lake Fenwick Road and South 253rd Street. Reith Road connects the Valley with the West Hill between State Route 516 and Military Road South.
Kent resident Reese Dengler takes photos and sends in requests to the city Public Works Department whenever he spots a sign down at the roundabouts. He’s been a busy man.
Two signs got knocked down less than 24 hours after the June 5 ribbon cutting to celebrate the completion of major construction for the $4.28 million project.
“The problem is large trucks can’t navigate the tight circle and will continuously be knocking these signs down,” Dengler said in a June 6 email to the Kent Reporter. “A solution needs to be found for this or else Kent will be constantly having to fix these signs.”
Installation costs for the signs are a couple of hundred dollars per sign, according to a June 13 email from Chad Bieren, city Public Works Director.
“About a dozen signs have been struck and replaced so far, but most of those were in the first few weeks since the site was opened to traffic,” Bieren said. “There have been other signs knocked down during construction, but drivers seem to be getting used to the roundabouts and have not been hitting signs as much. We’ve seen this happen when opening new roundabouts.”
The roundabouts opened to traffic earlier in the year. Dengler filed two reports about downed signs in May and thanked crews for the fix before the ribbon cutting, only to see two more signs go down after the ceremony.
“Based on what we’ve seen out there so far, we are moving the location of the directional signs from the center of the roundabout to under the yield signs on the approaches to the roundabout,” Bieren said.
That might not work either.
Dengler filed another report June 14 that a yield sign had been knocked down.
Bieren said the roundabouts are an effort to calm traffic and slow speeds down to make the road safer for drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists. Instead of stop sign controlled intersections, the single-lane compact roundabouts are expected to improve traffic flow for people walking, biking and driving.
Drivers, apparently, just need to be more aware of the signs.
“There is a tractor-trailer that has been sighted hitting the signs and we are working to find the driver,” Bieren said.
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