A real attention grabber

The new blinking stop signs at the intersection of County Road 7 and York Road are hard to miss.

That’s the point, according to McLeod County Highway Engineer John Brunkhorst, who said the solar-powered, LED-flashing signs are the latest response to recent crashes and near-misses at the intersection.

The intersection was redesigned as part of the County Road 115 southwest Hutchinson bypass project, which opened to traffic in mid-September. Traffic on the north-south County Road 7 route previously didn’t have a stop sign.

Safety measures installed earlier include orange-flashing “stop-ahead” signs, temporary oversized stop signs on the left side as drivers approach from the north and south, and raised reflective pavement markers.

The raised pavement markers aren’t permanent. “They won’t last through the plow season,” Brunkhorst said. “Come snow season, we’re not going to keep maintaining them.”

What else can the county possibly do to remind north- and southbound drivers to stop? Grinding rumble strips into the pavement is a possibility, but Brunkhorst said doing so would be difficult and costly. Raised rumble strips could be poured onto the roadway, but Brunkhorst said, “Snowplows will take them off eventually. That’s not real friendly on the blades, either.”

For now, the county hopes the flashing signs will remind drivers to do the right thing.

(Jorge Sosa is a staff writer for the Hutchinson Leader. He can be reached at sosa@hutchinsonleader.com)