The irresistible force and the immovable object met head-on in a Tuesday morning meeting at East Hills Business Park.
The irresistible force: Business park companies who say their employees are endangered by speeding traffic every time they turn off Kansas Highway 10 to go to work.
Traffic safety concerns are prompting companies at the East Hills Business Park to question state transportation officials. Tuesday, Brian Gower, state traffic engineer, talked to concerned business owners, city officials and Lawrence Chamber of Commerce members about how speed limits are determined on state highways.
The immovable object: The Kansas Department of Transportation, whose engineers repeated their claim that studies don't show a need for a traffic signal or speed-limit reductions.
Tuesday's meeting at PROSOCO Inc., one of the businesses located in the park, produced few results, other than KDOT promises to continue examining the situation.
"I don't want to sound negative, but it sounds like we're going to continue to study this and not get any resolution," said Doug Walker, an executive with NCS Pearson. "Driving is a war zone out here every day."
But Linda Voss, a state traffic engineer, praised the meeting.
"We sit in our office and they sit in their office and we never talk," she said. "If dialogue is all that happened, that's a good thing."
More than 300 of the park's 2,000 employees petitioned KDOT in April 2000, after several colleagues were injured in a two-vehicle accident as they tried to enter the park from K-10. KDOT studied the situation and recommended no changes.
The issue rose again in February when Lawrence city commissioners gave approval to a KDOT plan to lengthen left-turn lanes along K-10 at the park entrance, starting in 2003. Business officials said the proposed changes are too little, too late, and asked for Tuesday's meeting.
Nearly two dozen officials with the city, the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce and park businesses attended.
"We see the accidents happen," said Jeannine Wyatt, human resources manager for Kinedyne Corp., a company at the park. "We hear the accidents happen. And we hold our breath hoping nobody's been killed. It's a matter of when, not if."
Brian Gower, a KDOT engineer, said the speed limit in 1997 was 55 miles per hour, but drivers averaged 65 miles per hour anyway. KDOT adjusted the speed limit to match the reality common traffic engineering practice, he said. Reducing the speed limit wouldn't necessarily mean slower, safer drivers.
"If you want people to drive the exact limit, you have to have strict law enforcement," he said. "Quite frankly, I don't think the manpower is there to do that at every location.
Frustrated business officials tossed out other ideas to reduce speeds, suggesting warning signs, rumble strips, even extending city limits to encompass that point on the highway so drivers would feel compelled to slow down.
Gower said those ideas seemed unlikely.
"What would be the harm in trying?" Walker asked.
"I think we should look at your concerns a little more and see what we can do, but that's about the best we can do with that," Gower said.
Keith Folkmann, director of the Sauer-Danfoss plant, warned the problem will only get worse.
"We're going to continue to grow," he said. "And the risk is going to continue to grow."
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