Merlin Green Transportation Let
06Apr2000
Honorable members of the Dubuque City Council, Dubuque County Supervisors, Asbury City
Council:
I am writing this letter to all of you since you all are so very intertwined in the planning of the
transportation systems (roads) in the area.
As we enter the new century, I am asking that you do some serious transportation planning and
then take some action to see that the plans can be carried out. My major theme is that we need to
protect our major transportation arteries to keep them viable and functioning as they should... to
provide safe, fast access to the businesses that we wish to patronize. There used to be a popular
oŒce sign that stated "Your failure to plan does not necessarily result in an emergency on my
part!". Unfortunately, when YOU fail to plan, it DOES result in an emergency on the part of the
driving public.
I am also writing to bring to light some examples of the incredibly poor planning that has been
done in the past in hopes that you might be able to plan for some corrective action. The problem
with poor planning is the fact that we, the residents of the Dubuqueland area are forced to pay for
it for many years, in lost time, personal aggravation, and safety. Even worse, poor planning
tends to box the governmental agencies into a comer where corrective action becomes very very
expensive.
Some classic examples for all of you:
Several years ago we built a "bypass to Wisconsin" which is a great improvement. .. except
that incredibly, we allowed two (2) at grade intersections compete with stoplights to be
placed near the downtown area. Those of you who drive interstates know that the last thing
you expect to find on a four lane "bypass" highway is a stop light! This provides a
dangerous situation, and a great aggravation to the driving public. But perhaps the worst part
is that I fear that the lack of planning has precluded fixing the situation with anything but a
very costly solution. Check with ALL of the surrounding towns... Dubuque is the ONLY
example of such poor planning.
.
The last major improvement was the rework of the lower end of Dodge Street (Hwy 20). The
work that was done there was great... but again the planners only went halfway. There is
plenty of room for on-ramps in both directions at the Hill Street entrance. But for some
unknown reason, they were replaced by stop signs. Pulling out onto a 4 lane highway from a
stop sign is never a safe maneuver. Fortunately, further development has not yet precluded
fixing the problem. At the lower end of Dodge, both the BluffSt and Locust St entrances
have a merge lane, not an on ramp. I suspect that there have been several rear end collisions
at these intersections when a novice driver panics and hits the brakes at the last minute since
there is no room for acceleration into the traffic. Again, I suspect that there is room to
correct the problem.
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The rest of Highway 20 West to the Northwest Arterial is a complete disaster. Any time that
you have designed a highway such that the local residents would rather drive the city streets
than the highway, you have failed the transportation plan. It would be easy to correct the
problem by removing the traffic lights and place about 3 overpasses with access roads both
sides of the highway. Once again, I fear that the lack of planning has made such a change
very expensive. A recent news article about the traffic on Hwy 20 mentioned the fact that
most of the traffic never gets past the Arterial. That is great... it means that people are
coming to Dubuque to shop. How wonderful it would be if we were to make traveling to
Dubuque a fast, safe trip, free of agitation. I highly recommend a system like that along Hwy
52 through Rochester, Minnesota. You can travel at 55 mph though town, and find many fast
easy off and on ramps judiciously placed to get you to the business desired. And now I hear
that we will receive State monies to add 5 more traffic lights to Highway 20. Why must we
always PATCH instead of CORRECTING??
.
The Northwest Arterial is a marginal road at best. It doesn't take much imagination to
realize that the elimination of all intersections and replacing then with overpass type
intersections at Asbury Road and Pennsylvania Ave with the addition of appropriate access
roads both sides of the Arterial would return the road to it's design speed and functionality.
Such an improvement would greatly increase the value of all of the land both sides. As I
watch the continued development along this Arterial, it appears that there is no plan for fixing
the road at all, and when you finally do try to fix it, it will be very expensive because you
allowed development too close to the arterial. And tonight's paper suggests that you are
considering the addition of yet another stoplight intersection on the Arterial. Again... why
not FIX the problem rather than creating more problems??
John Deere has been a major employer in the Dubuque area for over 50 years. Yet,
amazingly, there still seems to be no transportation plan that would provide easy access to
their facilities. We are still using the very same roads that we used 35 years ago when I first
came to Dubuque. The only change that I have observed is the lowering of speed limits on
roads which have had no increase in development in the area and which have seen decreased
traffic due to lower employment. It makes one wonder what is going on.
Several years ago Mayor Duggan made the suggestion that a new arterial be placed along the
alignment of Seippel Road near the fairgrounds. Last year we saw the addition of badly
needed Industrial Park area along Seippel Road. There was also the addition of a new road
between the new Park and Highway 20. I have to ask... why would a governmental body
allow the building of a 35 mph road to an Industrial Park?? I would have thought that you
would have planned for the year 2020 and built at least the first part of a 4 lane high speed
road to get traffic in and out of the area quickly and easily. Instead, it looks like we designed
for the 1950's! At the same time, Asbury is in the midst of an uncontrolled expansion.
Major developments have already begun in the area where the proposed new arterial would
lie. Perhaps a new arterial would have never happened... but the combination of what
Asbury has allowed, and the new road that Dubuque built, it is easy to see that you have
combined to eliminate the potential. Please PLAN!
There is uncontrolled expansion of residential and commercial areas happening tluoughout
the county. This is seriously threatening the existing feeder transportation system.
Asbury Road is under serious attack!
Asbury allowed a new residential area to be built across from the Casey's store. It is a
small addition and it is easy to see that a single access to Asbury Road would have
been possible. Instead, three (3) accesses were granted, 2 on a combined vertical
and horizontal curve!
. A few years ago, the section of Asbury Road between Asbury and the Arterial was
rebuilt. At that time the hill in front of Heritage Manor could have easily been
lowered, and made the intersections that now dot the new section of road much safer.
It is already apparent that you have a traffic disaster with the opening of the new
HyVee store and the other developments that are under way in this area. Have you
any plans as to how you are going to serve your public and fix the situation?? I hear
that yet another stop light is being planned for Asbury Road. Do you realize that the
stop lights will be about '/2 block apart? I have to ask... is this a fix or a patch??
Sundown Road (Y21) is under attack
. A few years ago, a new subdivision started along Sundown Road at the North side of
Peosta. Amazingly, houses were allowed to front directly onto Sundown Road as
though it were a residential street. The result is a direct impact on the driving public
as speeds are reduced and the safety of the residents is compromised. As a result this
through road has become a residential street and will one day no longer be effective as
a primary road.
. I suspect that there are many other examples in Dubuque County where uncontrolled
development is seriously challenging the feeder roads. One day, some poor
governmental agency will be challenged with the expensive task of fixing all of this
because we will have bound ourselves to a complete stop.
Again... the purpose of this letter is to plead with you to do some planning that will serve the
public. Stop making stopgap attempts to fix the problems. Get proactive and plan for the future,
not yesterday. It is high time that we attempt to FIX our transportation problems instead of
continuing our current methods of stopgap patches.
Sincerely;
Merlin Green '\\,\
15851 Lore Mound Rd
Dubuque IA 52002