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Building safe school zones

City talks plans to build pedestrian islands near Marshall schools

Photo by Deb Gau This school crossing near the intersection of East Lyon Street and Adobe Road is one of three where the city of Marshall is planning to build new safety features next year.

MARSHALL — As Marshall city staff make plans for upcoming street projects, they’re also taking school crossing safety into account. Marshall City Engineer Jason Anderson said the city is planning to build features like flashing crossing lights and pedestrian islands in front of Park Side Elementary, the new Southview Elementary, and Marshall Middle School.

Anderson spoke to the Marshall School Board on Monday, and went over some concept drawings of street projects planned for 2022.

“We think it’s a good opportunity to highlight what we’re doing,” Anderson said.

Adding safety measures near Marshall schools was part of Marshall’s 2017 Safe Routes to School plan. The city and school district received MnDOT grant funding for the projects in 2018.

Anderson said the city already has plans to add safety upgrades to a crosswalk on East Lyon Street in front of Park Side Elementary in 2022. Back in March, the city approved a plan to re-stripe East Lyon Street to include a left turn lane in the center of the street, and build a pedestrian island near the intersection of Lyon Street and Adobe Road. The island is designed to give kids and other pedestrians a safe place to wait for traffic while crossing the street.

The planned upgrades at Park Side also include speed limit signs that display oncoming vehicles’ speed, and crossing signs with flashing beacons, Anderson said. The speed limit signs would be placed at the east and west ends of the school zone, and the flashing crossing beacon would go at the crosswalk, along with the pedestrian island.

With the new Southview Elementary being built along Southview Drive, the city is also looking at re-striping the street to include two traffic lanes and a center left turn lane, Anderson said. The new stripes would be put in place after a resurfacing project this summer, he said. Because of those changes, it looked like a pedestrian island would also work in front of Southview Elementary.

“We started to scope it into the project design,” Anderson said.

The plan for Southview would also include speed limit signs, a flashing crossing beacon, and a crosswalk with a pedestrian island, Anderson said. The island and crosswalk would be near the intersection of Southview Drive and Silvervine Drive, and would connect to new sidewalks built in front of Southview Elementary.

Anderson said the city also plans to place speed signs, a crossing beacon and a pedestrian island near Marshall Middle School. The crossing beacon and island would be located on Saratoga Street near James Avenue, where there’s already an existing crosswalk.

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