The Department of Transportation plans to rebuild Highway 46 through Wagner next year. You’d think Wagnerians would welcome some new concrete… but you’d be wrong. One business owner is worried that the state won’t do enough to keep businesses open during construction:
Kip Spotted Eagle, a Wagner business owner, voiced his concerns of the impact that the road construction project could have on his business situated along the stretch of Highway 46 planned to be reconstructed.
Spotted Eagle pressed DOT officials on whether there will be access points to his business during construction and how the DOT would help local businesses negatively affected by the project sustain throughout the duration of it.
“I’m very dependent on traffic coming through my drive-thru. Any blocking of access to traffic could put me out of business,” Spotted Eagle said. “Have you considered those businesses that are deeply impacted and could be shut down because of the project? I’m going to put it on the state of South Dakota to take care of your small business owners” [Sam Fosness, “‘This Is Going to Kill Our Small Town’: Wagner Residents Sound Off on Project to Make Highway 46 a Three-Lane,” Mitchell Daily Republic via Yahoo News, 2022.07.14].
And almost no one likes the proposal to reduce Highway 46 through Wagner from four through lanes to two driving lanes and a center turning lane:
Fears of the economic impact a switch from a four-lane to three-lane highway could have on the area were echoed by Wagner’s Michele Juffer, who pointed to the road construction project as a move that would “kill our small town.”
“Our road is a corridor of the river. We are looking to build our community and grow stronger in the future, and I feel like this is shooting us down,” Juffer said during Wednesday’s STIP meeting in Mitchell.
…Since the DOT unveiled its plans for Highway 46 along the Wagner area, a growing number of residents and Wagner city officials have opposed the change to a three-lane road. A petition that’s been circulating around the community has garnered around 1,500 signatures [Fosness, 2022.07.14].
I recall similar outcry in Madison in the early 1990s when the reconstruction of Highway 34 converted our familiar four lanes to three. That configuration lasted maybe a year before Madison’s poobahs got the state to come back with the grinder and the paint truck and restripe the road back to four lanes. The state got revenge of sorts in 2009, restriping 34 through Madison to five skinny lanes, including a center turning lane. And contrary to my concerns, that center lane appeared to reduce accidents.
Safety motivates reducing Wagner’s Highway 46 lanes from four to three. Our friends in Minnesota tell us that the “road diet” reduces accidents:
Four to three-lane conversions reduce the number of conflict points, particularly those with left‐turn movements, by removing the turning vehicles from the thru lane. Fewer conflict points along a section of road with a TWLTL ultimately reduces the total number of crashes. Four to three-lane conversions are an effective countermeasure to address rear‐end, right angle and head‐on crashes. The overall crash modification factors (CMFs) can range from 0.81 to 0.53, demonstrating a notable decrease in crashes. This range is based on characteristics of the site being considered. In Minnesota, average crash rates for three-lane facilities is 2.0 and 5.7 crashes per million entering vehicles (MEV) per year for four-lane facilities. The three-lane configuration crash rate is 46 percent lower than that of four-lanes. The CMF range is dependent upon the surrounding environment. Typically, larger CMFs are associated with more urban settings and smaller CMFs appear in more suburban or small town, environments. It is important to note that because of the decreased number of lanes, there exists the possibility for drivers to experience increased delay while traversing the three-lane section [Minnesota Department of Transportation, “Four to Three-Lane Conversion/Road Diet Summary,” retrieved 2022.07.18].
SDDOT is only reducing lanes, not the overall concrete width, so the three-lane design will also leave wider shoulders for bikes and leave more separation between traffic and pedestrians on the sidewalk.
Opponents’ concern is that single through lanes east and west won’t be able to handle growing traffic through Wagner. The SDDOT estimates traffic through Wagner on Highway 46 will grow from 4,510 vehicles per day counted in 2019 to nearly 7,000 by 2044. The Federal Highway Administration says road diets can work on roadways with 25,000 or fewer vehicles per day.
There’s no getting around the inconvenience created by road construction. But while losing a driving lane looks and feels wrong, empirical data indicate this road diet will make Wagner safer.
SOOOO, who decided the change and why? The community needs to know?
I understand the impact to businesses. Rebuilding a road through your town can be a major improvement to how a town looks. New curb, sidewalks and streets lights are nice improvements as well. I think back to how rebuilding US83 through Herried just made the town look so much nicer. Hoven, Highmore, Henry, Eureka, and Ipswich come to mind that as well were rebuilt and look much better. You see people out walking along those roads because they have good sidewalks and seeing people makes it look like there are young people living in that community. Ipswich was a 4 lane and now a 3 and no problems that I can see.
Redoing the exterior and/or interior of your business while the road work is happening is a smart move, if the business has the financial means to do so. In the end the road is new and the business looks new as well.
The change to two through lanes and a turn lane has been proven to reduce car-car and car-pedestrian accidents/injuries/deaths in town/city settings where the amount of traffic doesn’t support four through lanes. I’m pleasantly surprised SDDOT is up to speed on this, as it were.
Unfortunately the South Dakota Department of Transportation is not up to speed on this issue. This decision will have a 40 year economic and safety impact on Wagner. Wagner already has the [proven safest 4 lane traffic accident rate so that is not the real issue. The traffic counts are increasing by vast amounts due to increased traffic flow to Ft Randall and all the campgrounds, beaches, boat launches ect. In a few years the need will be for 4 lanes to manage traffic flows. Over 1565 people in and around Wagner signed petitions to keep the 4 lanes. They know what is best because they travel the road every day. There were only 3 proponents of the two lanes with turning lane at the DOT meeting in the Wagner Armory last fall while several hundred supported the 4 lanes. Beresford wisely kept their 4 lanes when offered the same DOT proposal. We should ask truckers who drive through the new three lanes in Milbank how safe they are.What Dot engineers propose on paper with all due respect has not always come to reality. Especially when they use national statistics. We do not have the same travel safety statistics as other states. Hence the flaw in theory. Every issue presented by the DOT has been answered by the Save the 4 delegation. Extending the 3 lane out another 1/2 mile west of Wagner will only increase congestion problems. The 4 lane needs to be extended out that far for future growth.
There have been insinuations, false information and misleading statements made by a few within the DOT . This is unacceptable. The City Council is unwilling to ask questions or vote on the DOT proposal and represent their constiuents and the people who do business in Wagner.The quote I was told is “We do not want to upset the SDDOT”. What is the better option? Offending almost every person in Wagner and the Trade Area by taking no action or supporting the three lane in abstaining from voting it up or down. In all my years as an elected official and in dealing with the SD DOT I have never seen such backdoor dealing and total lack of dealing responsibly with an issue. School safety, sidewalks turning lanes snow removal have all been addressed by the Save the 4 group. One example is snow removal. I have been in several towns with the two lanes and turning lanes and yes with light snowfall the snow can be pushed on the shoulder but in town after town when snowfall is heavy the snow is piled guess where? In the middle turning lane. How safe is that? In conclusion one must consider the future ot Wagner and one of the best Labor Day celebrations in South Dakota. If the two lane with a turning lane is installed just imagine the traffic jams and traffic congestion on the main road in and out of Wagner. The DOT and Wagner City Council must plan for the future of the Wagner community and what is in its best interest. The 4 lane with modifications for wider turns and a stop lights by the school is the best option.In conclusion both Native Americans and white citizens have come together to support the Wagner 4 lanes accross the board. We should listen to their wisdom and input.