The stop sign at the intersection of Highway 4 and 35th Street in Battleford will not be replaced by a yield sign.
Both the engineering firm that designed the twinning of the highway through Battleford and the Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure agree the original design should not be changed.
Battleford town council members received a message from the ministry Monday recommending the stop sign be maintained.
"Due to the high through traffic, the high collision rate and the relative short right lane of the highway past the intersection, this intersection should maintain a stop-control on 35th Street with free flow operations on Highway 4," said the missive.
The ministry did, however, say they would do some signage changes when the sign crews were next in the area.
The "double arrow" sign on the island at the intersection of the highway and 35th is to be replaced with "keep left-turn right" sign. They will also install a "lane ends" sign with a supplementary tab sign of 400 metres at approximately 260 metres south of the intersection.
The sign changes will address concerns about the difficulty of turning onto the highway during high traffic times.
"At certain times of day you wonder to yourself 'why is this a stop sign?'" said Mayor Derek Mahon.
But, he said, when there is traffic coming, it's at a high speed, so the stop sign is necessary.
The town recently received a letter from town residents Tim and Judy Pruden, who had concerns about the traffic flow and the "road rage" sometimes exhibited at that intersection.
"We have both observed and been victims of 'road rage' at this specific intersection due to the inability to safely merge onto the highway, impatient drivers behind us, swerving around our vehicles, etc. while we wait for a safe moment to try to pull out and then squeeze into a spot in the west (northbound) lane," they wrote.
Councillors agreed with the Prudens' suggestion that if northbound traffic on Highway 4 was instructed to merge left well before reaching 35th Street it would free up the right lane for traffic coming onto the highway. townhall.jpg
