Forest Hill Ave. detour causing problems
I headed up to D.C. early on Saturday and got back very, very late. As a result of my excursion I didn’t even know until this afternoon that Forest Hill Ave. has a detour set up in both directions at the 4400 block. From reports on Facebook, around midnight on Friday a drunk driver hit a power pole. The pole is leaning but folks nearby haven’t lost power. Since you can’t have folks driving beneath a leaning power pole the city has setup a detour. Unfortunately the detour takes the traffic of a major artery and routes it through a residential area with the typical H&H narrow streets.
The result as you can imagine is not going well. The detour has caused at least 7 cars to be damaged by impatient and/or incompetent drivers. One can only guess what will happen during the Monday morning commute. John McCormack has formed the Facbook Group STOP The Forest Hill MADNESS!!! to call attention to the situation. From comments on that page it doesn’t look like the problem o Forest Hill Ave. will solved until Wednesday but the hope is that the traffic can perhaps be re-routed to roads better suited for high volume traffic.
@richmondpolice S.O.S. “@HillsHeights: Forest Hill Ave. detour causing probs : http://t.co/CBQuc6nb #rva drivers r some of the worst ever.”
@saidlikefarrah @HillsHeights We’ve passed this info on to your sector Lt. Steve McQuail
@HillsHeights yes! Tired of them flying down Cedar Lane and almost hitting me. Watched dumb woman drive wrong way down Devonshire this am
Has anyone seen even one city truckor work crew out and about? I was out for 12 hours yesterday in all parts of the berg and the ONLY city types I saw were cops on normal patrol
@HillsHeights #rva driver really are some of the worst ever. Ugh.
At 11:00 on 6/30 I sent an email to the City Traffic engineer, CAO, Kathy Graziano and Deputy CAO Beschler expressing concern because absolutely no detour signs were in place and no detour directional signs to help those unfamiliar with the neighborhood navigate. I received notification that the CAO read it, but no response. I have had no indication anyone else read it, even though it was sent on Saturday, I believe it reasonable, given the damage, to expect that Tom Flynn, City Traffic engineer,and Chris Beschler would have been in their offices.
Clearly I wasted my time.
Only recently has detour signs been placed, and rather than routing traffic along W 43rd which is wider than W 44th, and using New Kent to get to Prince George, detour signs divert traffic on W 44th, Stonewall (which is two narrow for two cars to pass, yet GRTC buses are traveling there,
You might remember that last summer a bad accident occurred in approximately the same location, and then, as now, the incompetents in city government placed detour directional signs hours after the street was closed. Then, as now, they routed traffic along the streets least able to handle them.
I recognize that New Kent is only slightly wider than Stonewall between W 44th and Prince George. GRTC buses in years past regularly traveled New Kent until the routes were cut. In the immediate situation, clearly W 43rd. and Prince George are wider and better able to accomodate the traffic than Stonewall Ave or Cedar Lane.
Bryon Marshall, the CAO having read my message, chose not to respond. Neither Graziano, Beschler, or Tom Flynn the City Traffic engineer responded, and being 68 years old I don’t expect to live long enough to hear from them – simply, they don’t care.
Additionally, one would think that the City would have sufficient influence to have Dominion or Verizon, whichever owns the pole, repair it more expeditiously given a major road has been blocked since Friday night…it is now Sunday, 11:00 p.m. – one can imagine the hell that will be rush hour in the morning – and not one report on TV about the 4400 block of Forest Hill being close. The City’s PR machine, however, had time to get out information to brag about the city’s stellar performance – stellar performance I don’t see.
I’ve forwarded my earlier comment to Lt. McQuail at RPD.
This situation should not have been allowed to continue this long.
I have to agree that this is not a good set up. I’ve driven through this detour several times and other cars which may not be familiar with the neighborhood are not driving carefully enough through the area. I can only imagine how bad this will be during the morning rush today!
they should be detouring vehicles up to Midlothian Turnpike, sorry to see the neighborhood cars getting trashed by this poorly routed detour.
It would be nice if the police were present and enforced the traffic laws. Cars were speeding down New Kent this morning at 45 MPH (the posted limit is 25 MPH). And watch as the cars sail through the stop sign at 45th and New Kent. A rolling stop is one thing, but slowing down to 15 MPH and then speeding back up is dangerous and a violation of the law.
As I posted last night I sent an email to Lt. McQuail, RPD, about 11:00 PM. By 1:41, I received his response, a portion of which I’ve quoted below, indicating that he had taken positive action to try to alleviate the problem. At least one Richmond official responds to and is concerned
about citizen – thank you Lt. McQual. No response from any other city official I contacted.
“After receiving your email, I met with one of our field
supervisors who was a traffic officer. We have contacted DPW and have set to change the westbound traffic onto New Kent. We have also notified GRTC of this change. I have instructed our field supervisors to have officers monitor the traffic as part of their duties”
Mr. Moffett-
It’s not the CAO’s job to put up detour signs. Lt. McQuail is the supervisor for our precinct, and it *is* his job to be sure the traffic patterns are designated in a safe, effective manner.
As for your assertion that the city should use its influence to force Virginia Power to come fix a leany pole when there are still fifteen thousand people without power – are you always so entitled?
This is a TRAFFIC ENFORCEMENT issue.
Jennifer C., I’m sorry that you don’t understand that the “leany poll” has caused a major thoroughfare to be closed since Friday night and created a very hazardous condition in the neighborhood.
It is a part of DPW that is responsible for placing adequate street closed, detour, and detour directional signs, hence I emailed not only the CAO who is the City’s chief operating officer, but the deputy CAO who supervises DPW, and the City’s traffic engineer Tom Flynn who can reasonably be expected to give some guidance about safe detour routes throughout the city.
The fact remains, Forest Hill was closed with only street-closed signs and three strips of police tape across the road for nearly a day before any detour or detour directional signs were placed, and, when finally placed, those signs diverted traffic onto streets far too narrow to accommodate the traffic safely.
It is clearly not a matter of my feeling “entitled”, all citizens have the right to expect the city to act timely in a manner that provides for the public safety. In this case, they did not. I sorry you were offended by my criticizing the city for its failure.
Mr. Moffett, Cedar St. is just as wide and straighter than Prince George. The only benefit to moving traffic to Prince George is that it is farther from YOUR house. Welcome to my world – other streets are now experiencing the cut through traffic that those of us who live on 42nd St and New Kent experience every work day and Farmers Market Saturday…cars repeatedly sideswiped, inability to park in front of house, noise, fumes, etc. Ironically, because of the detours today, we’re having the chance to experience life on a “normal” residential street for a change. It’s silly to assume that because City officials weren’t sitting at their desks at 11:00 Sat. waiting for your email that they’re not doing their jobs. Maybe they were out assessing damage or handling other emergencies, maybe they were dealing with their own emergencies. The tone of your writing would not make me want to jump to your aid.
I understand that a leaning pole that is not affecting the power grid is very low on the priority list, and should remain there while people are without electricity. Clearly.
I am not disputing that the detour needs to be rerouted. I am irritated that there are people who think that the best way to get anything done is to ignore the common-sense solution (contact the sector lieutenant) and immediately start stomping their feet at politicians and upper-level city government, who are just going to have to stop what they’re doing and track down the people who can actually take care of the problem. All such actions do is create confusion and delay (to quote Sir Topham Hatt). If the individuals who can act directly on your concern do not do so in a timely fashion, then you start kicking it up the chain. This does not seem to be the case here, when you got a prompt response from Lt. McQuail, in the middle of the night even. I distinctly remember a commenter on this blog who thought the best way to get a traffic light fixed was to skip all the intermediate steps and email Mayor Wilder directly. Does that sound familiar?
Big “like” on Eric’s comment. Although the detour is causing even more cut through traffic in the neighboorhood, I find that even on normal days, people are flying down our roads (W 42nd, W 43rd, New Kent, Cedar, etc.) with disregard to speed and traffic signs.
I would personally like to see some better enforcement by the police. I live at the corner of 42nd and Stonewall and people fly through that stop sign all the time. Many don’t even slow down. With as many children and pets in the neighborhood as there are and not to mention all the people who walk, jog, etc. This is extremely dangerous.
“Welcome to my world – other streets are now experiencing the cut through traffic that those of us who live on 42nd St and New Kent experience every work day and Farmers Market Saturday…cars repeatedly sideswiped, inability to park in front of house, noise, fumes, etc.”
And my world, too, since I live on New Kent. I’ve had three different side-view mirrors thwacked off my car and every time, the perpetrator just kept on going. Not to mention that the stop sign at 45th & New Kent appears to be for decorative purposes only. Maybe parking a police car near the sign would help. Or make all the streets one-way, like they are in other parts of our neighborhood. I agree that traffic should be re-routed onto a larger artery like Midlothian Tpke, rather than a smaller one. And failing that, there needs to be some “parental guidance” for the folks who can’t see that they are barreling through a residential neighborhood.
Still chuckling over the Facebook page…..
Just thought I should say that Tom Flynn, traffic engineer, went out on medical leave shortly before school went out. I don’t know if he is back yet or not, but that may explain why he did not respond to the emails. Emails should have been automatically redirected to another staff member, but not sure the city system would even have that capability.