County engineer requests speed zone changes from ODOT
When it comes to twists and turns in navigating around Holmes County’s county roadways, there’s a variety of speed limits, and soon some of those will be altered to better reflect appropriate speeds for vehicles.
The Holmes County commissioners recently passed a resolution requesting the director of the Ohio Department of Transportation to modify the present speed limit of 10 different sections of Holmes County roadways.
Holmes County engineer Chris Young presented the speed studies and the corresponding resolutions to ODOT on July 16.
In his letter he said due to tourist travel within the county, some roads in the studies experience extreme increases in vehicular and pedestrian traffic. Young said in addition, some roads have higher volumes of slow-moving vehicles, mainly due to the Amish and farming communities in which they are situated.
Holmes County assistant engineer Cory Baker paid a visit to the commissioners to discuss the 10 different county roadways that will experience a change in speed limitations.
“We’ve been doing a lot of speed surveys by the consultant, and basically, I am just picking out roads that I think need posted,” Baker said. “I’m trying to keep it within the grant amount (ODOT) is offering us.”
He said the speed surveys were conducted by MasterMind out of Dublin, Ohio, which has done several key speed studies for the county over the years.
Baker said now that the commissioners have passed the resolution, he will send it to ODOT for its approval. He said the new speed limit postings should be in place within the coming month.
The grant from ODOT in the amount of $11,240 will be added to the cost of $1,260 for the county to cover the expenses of the speed survey and speed alterations.
The speed changes will consist of the following county roads:
—County Road 1 from Township Road 529 to state Route 83 on County Line Road, County Road 229 at the Wayne County line and County Road 621 from state Route 520 to the Killbuck Corporation limits will each be reduced to 45 mph.
—County Road 329 from County Road 318 to County Road 320 west of Holmesville will be 50 mph.
—County Road 22 in Western Holmes County will have three portions of roadway deemed 40 mph including sections from County Road 50 to state Route 514, state Route 514 to state Route 39 and state Route 39 to state Route 3.
—Other zones being dropped to 40 mph will be County Road 59 from County Road 19 to County Road 600 in Mechanic and Clark townships near Becks Mills and County Road 114 near Walnut Creek, which will be in two sections including state Route 643 to state Route 557 and state Route 557 to state Route 39.
Commissioner Dave Hall said much of the discussion over which roads need surveyed consists of either heavy usage on possibly dangerous portions of county roads or at the request of citizens who recognize possible travel threats where speed becomes a danger.
“We’re getting a lot of travel on our back roads anymore,” Hall said. “(The county roads) are in really good shape, but when you’re in good shape, you don’t have the artificial speed bumps, and vehicles tend to move faster.”
Hall confirmed these new changes in speed zones will be conveyed to the Holmes County Sheriff’s Office.