Area schools support IDOT fix for lethal intersections

BAXTER — School bus driver Becky Perin travels through the Highway 330/ U.S. Highway 117 intersection twice per day with students from the Baxter Community School District — 22 in the morning and 10 in the afternoon.

The intersection is considered one of the most dangerous in the state by the Iowa Department of Transportation. But Perin’s opinion of the agency’s planned diamond interchange to fix Highway 330/U.S. Highway 117/Highway F17 differs from that of BCSD leaders.

After looking at the interchange specifications, Perin is concerned the entrance ramps that will connect all three highways will create more traffic, and she worries it will be difficult to navigate a school bus with other vehicle merging onto the highway at 65 mph. But even the longtime bus driver admits, she cannot properly judge the new intersection until it’s in operation.

“Everybody is going to be trying to cross in front of me,” Perin said. “Everybody has to cross in front of the bus. Nobody wants to wait for the bus.”

Although one of its bus drivers is weary of the change, BCSD has come out in support of the IDOT’s planned diamond interchange. They’ve done so amid vocal opposition from Mingo organic farmer Larry Cleverley who will see the loss of at least 50 acres due to the interchange construction.

The BCSD Board of Education approved a letter at its March 16 meeting to IDOT Chairman David Rose, affirming its support for the planned interchange. This was a reaffirmation for the board, first declaring written support for the project in 2012. The latest correspondence cited the number of students, parents and Collins/Maxwell-Baxter athletic participants who travel through the intersection daily, and the district reposted the numbers on its public Facebook page.

The letter stated on any give day approximately 80 regular bus route students are transported through the intersections. Due to BCSD sports sharing agreement with Collins/Maxwell Community Schools, 240 student athletes and coaches travel through the intersection. According to the school board, several Baxter High School students cross the highway in their own vehicles to commute to and from school, 40 staff members and “numerous parents and (event) spectators.”

The letter came just days after a March 13 accident at the Highway 330/ U.S. Highway 117 intersection that killed a 62-year-old Des Moines man who collided with a semi truck crossing during foggy, zero-visibility conditions.

Maps from the IDOT show how a planned $14.5 million diamond interchange — which has been in the planning stages since 2009 — would redirect traffic flow from US Highway 117 and County Highway F17 through Cleverley’s property to create entrance and exit ramps. The current F17 and Highway 117 crossing points would be closed, and motorists would use a proposed overpass to continue north on Highway 65 to Collins. The entrance and exit ramps create the diamond shape and dissect the edges of Cleverley’s property.

The interchange is all but set and is part of the IDOT’s 5-year plan. The department will present the final interchange proposal — including routes and the areas of Cleverley’s land that will be affected — within 10 to 12 months, and construction is scheduled to begin in 2017.

Board president Curt Hansen sees the issue as a matter of safety for Baxter students. He is also a farmer, operating a roughly 4,500 acre row crop operation with his son. Hansen said he feels empathy for Cleverley, and would also be weighing his options if it were his land in the construction zone.

“Our interest as a school district and as a community is to look at the safest approach, particular for students, parents and teachers crossing that intersection,” Hansen said. “I think (Cleverley) is doing what he thinks in right from his point of view. For me, it gets down to, yes, they’re going to take some of his land but that can be replaced.”

Hansen also disagrees with some detractors who argue the diamond interchange is too costly compared other alternatives proposed by they IDOT such as a J-turn — a traffic device that directs drivers through a crossover, into a turnaround or u-turn and travels back the opposite direction. This prevents drivers from having to cross four lanes of traffic. Although the board agreed the J-turn would be safer than the current crossings, Hansen and his fellow members feel the diamond interchange would be “the safest way forward” for district commuters and other drivers.

“But I would say what’s your life worth? You tell that to the families of the folks who have been killed out there and ask if they think that’s an absorbent amount of money,” Hansen said.

“We want to be clear, we recognize that this is a sensitive issue that has great political implications — particularly if you’re the land owner. We get that. We empathize with that,” BCSD Superintendent Todd Martin added. “But I would agree, and Curt and I have talked about this, this really comes down to safety versus cost. And in our mind safety always wins.”

The IDOT has compiled statistics on the number of fatalities at both U.S. Highway 65/IA 117 and U.S 65/ County Highway F17 intersections from 2003 to 2014. At the Highway 117 crossing, six fatalities were recorded in 80 total accidents. The Highway F17 crossing saw three fatal accidents in 31 total collisions — this is a combined total of nine fatal crashes in 111 accidents in a 10-year period.

According to IDOT records, one in every 139 crashes statewide resulted in a fatality from 2003 to 2013. Other four-lane expressways in the state experience one fatality for every 86 crashes, but the combined crashes at the two intersections crossing Highway 330/65 resulted in one fatality for every 12 accidents.

BCSD Transportation Director Deb Gipe said the policy for her drivers is to avoid the intersection if possible, but in certain situations, she admits it’s impractical to find an alternate route. But to date, she said there have been no accidents or close calls involving a school bus.

“Knock on real wood, we haven’t had any real accidents,” she said. “But the buses are big, they can see around things better than a car can. We just work really hard with safety in that area — probably more so than any other road we travel. We all know what a deathtrap it could be.”

BCDS is not the only school district affected by the intersection and is not the only school system to voice support for the IDOT’s planned interchange. Bondurant-Farrar Community School Board of Education voted Monday to approve its letter of support of the project, and Collins/Maxwell school district has done the same. Colfax-Mingo Community School District has given the IDOT its verbal affirmation.

Marty Lucas, C-M School District superintendent, has said although the intersection only affects a small number of his district’s students, staff and personnel, he is currently finishing a letter of support to fix what he and other C-M officials feel is a deadly crossing.

“The reason we’re sending a letter of support is to support Baxter and because it is a dangerous intersection,” Lucas said.

Contact Mike Mendenhall at mmendenhall@jaspercountytribune.com