Council tables speed limit increase to Greenwood Road, Pole Creek Crossing pending traffic study

Speed limit increases could be coming to Greenwood Road and Pole Creek Crossing in the future as the city council considers raising from its current limit of 25 miles per hour.

Action was tabled during Tuesday's regular meeting to allow city administration time to locate prior traffic studies conducted on the roads.

The proposed speed limit increase was brought to the council through a letter dated Feb. 16 from Jason Petik, chief executive officer at Sidney Regional Medical Center (SRMC), which is located at 1000 Pole Creek Crossing. In the letter, Petik requested the speed limit on both streets be raised to 40 mph, mirroring the speed limit on Fort Sidney Road.

Julie Slagle, vice president of patient care services at SRMC, addressed the council at Tuesday's meeting regarding the request. The council was advised that while the city is not bound by law to do a traffic study on the roads prior to any speed limit changes, which typically run about $2,500 per location, it was recommended they do so for liability purposes.

"The thing about the traffic study is if there's an accident there, and it's bad enough if someone gets sued, the first thing the lawyer is going to ask for is to see the engineer study," Sidney Street Superintendent Hank Radtke said.

Radtke said although he recommended doing a traffic study, at the present time road work that is still being completed in the area would affect the results of the study.

"Without that road being completed, I think we're wasting our time," he said. "Because once that road's completed, that's going to change a lot of how that traffic pattern is going to be."

Mayor Mark Nienhueser asked whether they could use the study that was done on the roads before to set the speed limits. Radtke said he has never seen it.

"That set the curvature on those roads, where the driveway points could be and the distances between them," Nienhueser said. "It's got to be around some place."

The council was told by city administration they would look for the study and bring it back to them for the next regular meeting on March 22. Action was then tabled.

"You can't do 25 miles an hour down Greenwood Road, though," Nienhueser said. "I've tried it. There's no reason for that to be the way it is."