Accidents on Mill Creek Parkway in Clinton and worries pile up
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By Steven Martens | Friday, October 19, 2007 |
CLINTON, Iowa — Phyllis Kist says she and her husband, Dr. Richard Kist, thought Mill Creek Parkway was a good idea when it opened in late 2001.
Richard Kist was one of three people who have been killed in traffic accidents on Mill Creek Parkway, and Phyllis Kist says she is concerned that the development along the route will make traveling there more dangerous.
The road, which extends from U.S. 30 north to Main Avenue along Clinton’s western edge, serves as a bypass for motorists wanting to get from one end of Clinton to the other without going through the stop-and-go traffic of downtown and has helped spur economic development in western Clinton.
Wild Rose Entertainment is building a new casino near Mill Creek Parkway and U.S. 30, and local developer Valley Bluff Development is building a shopping area nearby.
Ashford University has opened an online support center at the Lyons Business and Technology Park just south of Main Avenue, and Jesus Christ Prince of Peace parish is building a new church nearby.
According to the Iowa Department of Transportation and the Clinton Police Department, there have been 146 reported car accidents on Mill Creek
Parkway since Jan. 1, 2002. In addition to the three fatalities, 58 of those accidents involved injuries and 85 involved property damage only.
Tom Welch, state transportation safety engineer for the DOT, said those numbers do not place Mill Creek Parkway among the state’s most dangerous routes. At the intersection with U.S. 30, which has more accidents than any other point on Mill Creek Parkway, there have been 50 accidents — one fatality and one with major injuries. Welch said the state’s most dangerous urban intersections have a total of five to eight fatalities and major injuries in a five-year period.
Kist and her husband had been southbound on Mill Creek Parkway, stopped at a traffic light and tried to turn right onto westbound U.S. 30 on the evening of March 15, 2004. Her husband, 73 pulled out into the path of an oncoming car. He died at the scene.
Kist says the intersection is not well-marked, and the eastbound traffic on U.S. 30 coming into Clinton sometimes doesn’t seem to slow down in time to stop at the stop light at the intersection with Mill Creek Parkway.
She said she is concerned about what will happen when the new developments along the parkway open for business.
“I use it; I don’t like it,” she said. “It’s only going to get worse.”
The accidents along Mill Creek Parkway do seem to be more serious than accidents in other parts of the city, due mostly to the 45 mph speed limit and the busy intersections, said Capt. Michael Gertson of the Clinton Police Department.
The road actually is designed for speed limits up to 55 mph, which may help explain the fast-moving traffic there, City Engineer Steve Honse said.
“It’s so easy to drive at high speeds out there,” he said.
Gertson said officers patrol the area as much as possible.
“It’s impossible to be there 24 hours a day,” he said.
Honse said the city is planning road improvements in the area. Two new traffic lights will be installed at the entrances to the casino and shopping area, and the city plans to widen the road in the area.
Honse said there also are plans to widen nearby Manufacturing Drive, which will give motorists an alternate north-south route nearby, and the planned extension of 19th Avenue North will link the Ashford online support center to Springdale Drive, providing a more direct route between the support center and the Ashford campus on North Bluff Boulevard.
Clinton officials also are in the middle of preparing a comprehensive city-wide traffic study, which should be complete in six months to a year, Honse said.
Steven Martens can be contacted at (563) 659-2595 or smartens@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.
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