Study to examine summer traffic
Two intersections in downtown Waupaca will temporarily become four-way stops again on Tuesday, May 29.
There will be temporary stop signs and flashing red signals at Main and Fulton streets and Main and Badger streets.
“We anticipate running the pilot study though the summer until Labor Day at the latest,” said Brennan Kane, the city’s director of community and economic development.
With parking around the city square being reconstructed this summer as well, the city will be evaluating the traffic patterns closely, he said.
Reconstruction of the parking will begin after Strawberry Fest.
The four-way stop pilot project will also include temporarily removing the right turn lanes from Fulton Street onto Main Street and from Badger Street onto Main Street.
A traffic study concluded there is no need for the right turn lane from Fulton onto Main, and the city’s Downtown Master Plan includes the removal of it.
The city’s planned reconstruction and redesign of four blocks of Main Street – from Badger Street to Water Street – is scheduled for 2021.
That is why the city is doing the pilot project now.
It will be the second time the city does so at these two intersections.
The first pilot project took place over about six weeks last October and November.
City staff heard comments related to the timing of that first pilot project.
Some thought the city did it as the wrong time, because it was after Labor Day, when traffic decreases after the summer tourism season.
Like the last time, the city will again conduct an online survey and also have the survey available at downtown businesses.