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State plans offset turning lanes at dangerous intersection

The state plans to add turning lanes at the intersection of the Avenue of the Saints (U.S. 18) and county road T38 (Lancer Ave.). Press graphic by Bob Steenson/Google maps
The state plans to add turning lanes at the intersection of the Avenue of the Saints (U.S. 18) and county road T38 (Lancer Ave.). Press graphic by Bob Steenson/Google maps
By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

An Avenue of the Saints intersection west of Floyd where a teenager and his grandmother were killed in 2016 will get right-turn lanes added as part of efforts to improve safety at the site.

The Iowa Transportation Commission approved 44 safety projects at its meeting Tuesday, including the right-turn lane project at the intersection of U.S. Highway 18/Iowa 27 and county road T38/Lancer Avenue in Floyd County.

That’s the intersection of the Avenue of the Saints with the county road that leads north to Osage and south to Greene.

The project will be 100 percent funded by the state and is expected to cost $249,560.

Pete Hjelmstad, Iowa DOT District 2 utility coordinator, told the Press that the project should be completed sometime next summer.

“It should be a three-to-four-week project,” Hjelmstad said. “We’ll see it happening after July 1. That’s when the money becomes available for fiscal year 2020.”

He said the project will not require detours on the Avenue of the Saints, but will likely cause the outside lanes to be closed when work is being done on each side.

In October 2016, Marilyn Louise Wulff and her grandson, 14-year-old Jadon Wulff, were killed in a two-vehicle collision at that intersection. The Iowa State Patrol reported that Marilyn Wulff pulled out from Lancer Avenue into the path of a pickup being driven by a man from Minnesota, who was not injured.

Since then, Brian Wulff — Marilyn’s son and Jadon’s father — has been advocating with the state and the county to make safety improvements at the intersection.

An intersection safety report issued by the Iowa DOT this past summer noted that 19 crashes had occurred at the intersection between 2006 and 2016. It said that wasn’t an excessive number of crashes, but the severity of the crashes was higher than usual.

“These patterns underscore the difficulties on the part of drivers on T38 being able to judge when it is safe to proceed across the divided lanes of U.S. 18,” the assessment said.

The assessment included a list of several recommended changes at the intersection, including construction of the offset right-turn lanes.

In June, the Floyd County Board of Supervisors agreed to a request by Wulff to write a letter to the state Department of Transportation, supporting roadway changes recommended in the Iowa DOT safety study. Wulff also urged the county to make what changes it could on the county road that intersects with the four-lane highway.

In July, additional signage was added at the intersection, including signs warning traffic coming from the county road to “Recheck cross traffic” before proceeding.

Hjelmstad said Tuesday that the project will move right-turning traffic away from the divided highway lanes to give drivers on the county road a better view of oncoming traffic so they can see when it is safe to turn onto the avenue or cross the lanes.

He said DOT staff recommended the change, because of the types of crashes that had occurred there.

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