City looking for input on $75,000 traffic calming project

Columbia Public Works hosted a second meeting for interested parties Thursday evening at City Hall to discuss an upcoming road project on Sexton Road in central Columbia.

The city is looking to invest $75,000 on traffic calming measures to lower driving speeds on Sexton Road from Business Loop 70 to Providence Road.

Jada Jesse, who has lived on Sexton Road for more than three decades, said she has seen cars going 40 mph in the 25 mph speed limit.

“There’s a lot of traffic from the school, from the neighborhood, people speeding through there and stuff all the time,” she said.

Sexton was ranked No. 1 on the city’s 2017 Neighborhood Traffic Management Program List. Jacob Ray, traffic engineering supervisor with the Public Works Department, said the city ranks the streets based on many factors, including speed, traffic volume and crashes.

“It was just brought up by citizens that it was a problematic street,” he said. “It was something that we decided to look at.”

Public Works said many cars drive anywhere from 10-15 mph over the posted speed limit. According to crash data compiled by the Missouri State Highway Patrol, there have been 16 crashes along Sexton resulting in seven injuries over the past five years.

Engineers are proposing installing six speed humps along Sexton to slow down traffic.

Jesse said she likes the idea.

“I think it’s a really good proposal,” she said. “Like they said, people may not like the placement of the speed humps, but I think they’ll get used to it.”

Ray said the department will collect comments from the public for the next three weeks and then will submit final design plans to the city council. Construction could start sometime later in the year.