Grove City Messenger - October 30th, 2022

PAGE 4 - GROVE CITY MESSENGER - October 30, 2022
By Dedra Cordle
Staff Writer
At a recent Jackson Township board of
trustees meeting, several residents who
live on Hibbs Road were in attendance to
bring forth a number of safety issues they
say have been plaguing their community.
Among the most egregious things they
said they have seen is semi-trucks traveling
through their residential road, posing a
real danger to the people who live in the
area and the motorists who are sharing the
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Making the issue even more precarious,
said resident Noreen Hartmann, is the fact
that the legal speed limit on Hibbs Road is
40 miles per hour. She said at that speed, it
makes it seem as if the semi-trucks are barreling
down the narrow road that features
several sharp turns.
“It is so dangerous,” she told the
trustees.
According to Hartmann, she reached out
to a number of county and state agencies to
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see if they could fix the problem by posting
additional ‘no thru-truck’ signs on the
neighboring state routes or even reduce the
speed limit altogether. She said she did not
receive much guidance to quell her concerns.
“Something is going to happen (with all
of the trucks using Hibbs Road) and I am so
frustrated because no one that I’ve talked
to wants to say they’re responsible for the
safety on the road.”
The trustees said they were unaware of
the issue and vowed to take action.
Shortly after that meeting in
September, chairman Dave Burris said
they reached out to the county engineer’s
office to request a speed study for Hibbs
Road. He said although they knew that it
would not stop some motorists from speeding
should it be reduced, they believed it
would be a “step in the right direction” to
lessen the problem.
At the Oct. 11 regular meeting, the
board announced that they had received
the results of the study that was conducted
by the county engineer’s office. According
to Township Administrator Shane
Farnsworth, it was determined that the
speed limit on Hibbs Road would not be
lowered at this time.
“Although we are extremely appreciative
of the county engineer’s office for
responding to our request and turning this
report around very quickly, we were surprised
by some of the results in the report
regarding speeds and cut-through truck
traffic they witnessed (while doing field
studies),” said Farnsworth.
According to the report, the average
traffic counts on Hibbs Road reached
between 1,300 and 1,500 motorists daily
with speeds that averaged between 39 and
43 miles per hour. Hibbs Road residents
said they had issues with the information
that was collected as the counts were conducted
on June 21, 2022 — months before
the bridge on State Route 665 was closed.
Resident Bill Hartmann said the
amount of traffic — semi-truck and common
vehicular — has been increasing since the
bridge was closed. He said it is his fear that
it will not lessen even when the bridge
opens because of the residential and commercial
growth the surrounding area is
experiencing.
“They’ll just use our road even more as a
cut-through (to dodge traffic on state routes
104 and 665),” he said.
The residents and the township officials
also said they had concerns with the time
the field studies were conducted last month
— the Hartmann’s said peak semi-truck
traffic is between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. — and
the crash history data.
According to Michael Andrako, a county
mobility engineer, there have been 11 accidents
on Hibbs Road in the past three
years — nine of which were property damage
only crashes and two were injury
crashes. He added that these numbers are
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reported crashes and incidents only.
“We know that there are probably many
more unreported crashes or incidents that
have occurred, but we can only use the data
that has been reported,” he said.
Andrako said the reported crash history
is just one of the elements that are used to
determine whether the speed limit on a
road should be reduced. In addition to the
crash history, the engineer’s office also
takes into account the daily traffic numbers,
the observed speeds in field studies,
and the characteristics of the road. He said
they compile all of that data and compare it
with speed zone evaluation sheets established
by the state department of transportation
and software tools used by the
Federal Highway Administration.
He said both of the state and federal
procedures determined that the speed limit
on Hibbs Road should remain at 40 miles
per hour.
Although the speed limit will not be
changed at present, the county said they
will work with the state and the township
to place additional safety features on the
road. For instance, Andrako said they can
post no-thru truck signs on the state routes
to alert semi-truck drivers that they are
not permitted to use Hibbs Road.
Farnsworth said he believes that step
would be beneficial for the safety of the residents
on Hibbs Road.
“The problem is once (the semi-truck
drivers) turn onto Hibbs Road, they are
committed because there is no turning
point,” he said. “So, we will keep trying to
work with ODOT and working up the food
chain of ODOT to get those signs onto the
state routes so they can see them well
before they get to the intersections on 665
and 104.”
The trustees said they have also spoken
with the county sheriff’s office to post special
duty officers on Hibbs Road during
peak traffic hours. Burris said he has even
spoken with the county about posting
weights and measures officials on Hibbs
Road to weigh commercial trucks should
they cut-through.
“It’s only going to take one (citation
being issued) because they’re going to tell
all their buddies ‘I just got fined x number
of dollars’” he said. “And then they won’t be
going through there anymore because
those tickets are not cheap.”
The residents of Hibbs Road said that
while they appreciate all of the steps that
are being taken to reduce the number of
safety issues on the road, they do want the
township to continue to work with the
county and state to have the speed limit
lowered.
The trustees said they will continue to
work with any agency in order to improve
personal safety for the residents.
“We’re trying all we can within our
realm of what we can do and we’re not
going to stop,” said Burris. “We are not
going to stop.”