Besides repairs to the roadway and the aesthetic in the medians, the Innovate Mound project team is dedicated to making the Mound Road corridor safer and more efficient for drivers and pedestrians.
“Over the years the land use around Mound Road has evolved based on population, demand, and the needs of the community,” Regine Beauboef, project manager and senior vice president, HNTB Corporation told the community at one of the project’s open houses.
“What was built 40 years ago for traffic at the time isn’t quite working as it meant to be. There are more driveways that are immediately next to each other now, along with more crossovers. You have potential for more incidents in the roadway,” Beauboef said.
To that end, some of the project’s goals include:
- Decreasing the frequency of collisions,
- Efficient traffic flow,
- Increasing safety for walkers, and
- Providing reasonable access for businesses.
The project team has mapped past crashes and also evaluated intersection delays to find “hot spots” along the corridor where traffic flow design needs to be improved. Most of the “hot spots” are near major intersections, highly congested areas, or crossovers.
Some of the traffic and collision “hot spots” on Mound Road before the project include:
- Higgins Avenue to Dobry Drive
- Branch Street to Elmridge Drive
- Bedell Road to Nathan E
- Seabreeze Lane to Progress Drive
- 15 Mile Road to Millett Avenue
- Murthum Avenue to 14 Mile Road
- 13 Mile Road to Red Rum Drain
- Enterprise Court to 12 Mile Road
- I-696 to Martin Road
To fix some of these congested areas, Innovate Mound planners tried to consolidate driveways where they could, and also moved crosswalks.