How-To: Use the New Fairchild Avenue, North Mantua Street Intersection

The can be confusing to motorists.

Who can blame them? It had been closed for months, but then suddenly the intersection reopened with new traffic signals, a massive bump in the roadway and two brand new left-turn-only lanes.

A month after it reopened, some drivers are still getting hung up on the left turn lane on Fairchild Avenue that directs motorists past the not-yet-open Fairchild Avenue Bridge onto North Mantua Street.

Some drivers don't see the left-turn lane, maybe because the lane lines are faded or because of the orange barrels on Fairchild. So they sit in the lane that would otherwise go straight on to the new bridge with their left turn signals blinking waiting for the traffic light to turn. Meanwhile, behind them drivers looking to turn right and head south on North Mantua Street pile up.

Kent City Engineer Jim Bowling said the city recognizes the problem and plans to install signs directing traffic to help drivers use the new intersection.

Bowling said part of the problem is the lane lines were painted in January in order to get the intersection open to traffic.

"And painting in the winter never sticks," he said.

The contractor will restripe the lane lines when the weather warms up in March.

The redesign of the intersection was meant to improve traffic flow at one of the busiest intersections in Portage County. So if you're driving on Fairchild Avenue toward the new bridge and you want to turn left, veer left of the orange barrels. You're not driving in to oncoming traffic. That's a turn lane just for you.

If you use the intersection correctly, the approximately 20,000 other cars and trucks who drive through it daily will be thankful.

Another problem? Drivers are making illegal left turns into the new Sheetz gas station from North Mantua Street, and people pulling out of the Sheetz entrance on North Mantua Street are making a prohibited left turn to head toward the high school.

This is a problem, Bowling said, because it creates a safety hazard for people crossing the now-five-lane road. And it won't be fixed until 2012, when construction is completed on North Mantua Street and an island is built in the Sheetz entrance to stop people from making dangerous left turns.

For the most part, the new intersection seems to be working well. The left-turn lane from North Mantua Street allows two lanes of northbound traffic to continue unimpeded by people trying to turn left onto Fairchild Avenue. Prior to construction, northbound drivers got stuck behind people turning left onto Fairchild Avenue and often had to sit through the light cycle unnecessarily.

And, prior to construction, those drivers turning left on to Fairchild Avenue often were stuck waiting for southbound traffic to clear — which took a long time under the previous traffic signal timing — and often ended up flying through a yellow light regardless.

Now, the traffic signals seem to be timed quite nicely, at least for patient drivers. I still see quite a few people zooming through red lights who are headed north toward Twin Lakes.