The county board has received copies of an October 19, 2009 letter to County Engineer Shae Kosmalski from the Mid- Trail Property Owners Association regarding safety on the Gunflint Trail.
On behalf of the association, president Robert Hyatt asked the Highway Department to place more signs in the mid-Trail area, including electronic signs that communicate to oncoming drivers how fast they are traveling.
Numerous types of vehicles including cars, cars with trailers, trucks, and buses, are speeding excessively, according to Hyatt. Within 3½ miles along the mid-Trail corridor are 78 entrances to businesses and residences, he said. “The Sheriff ’s Department has been patrolling the mid-Trail area and both sides of the speed zone,” he said, “but is limited by lack of manpower.”
One particularly dangerous spot is the entrance to Voyagers Point Road, which meets the Gunflint Trail at a steep angle, Hyatt said. People along that road must cross the Trail to get their mail.
Hyatt’s letter goes on to say the Highway Department suggested that the impact of speed signs could be diluted if too many of them were installed. The association was told that getting the speed reduced would require a new Minnesota Department of Transportation study. According to the Highway Department, Hyatt said, speed display signs might be effective.
Recommendations from the association included more speed signs, electronic speed-monitoring signs, more funding for traffic enforcement, and a study by MnDOT with the goal of a speed limit slower than 40 m.p.h.
The association also recommended “that citizens inform the Sheriff ’s Department when a commercial vehicle is seen disregarding the posted speeds and that this then be reported to the parent company,” and “that long-term consideration be given to a bypass around the mid-Trail area.”
The county board discussed the letter at its Tuesday, November 10 meeting but took no action.
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