Officials work to make local intersection safer with upcoming changes

MADISON COUNTY, Tenn. — One intersection will soon be seeing changes in an effort to make it safer.

The intersection of Windy City Road and Old Humboldt Road will soon be seeing some changes and getting new updates. That’s according to the Madison County Highway Committee in a meeting held Tuesday.

The meeting included a presentation by Alexander Engineering who conducted a traffic study at the intersection. The study examined traffic volume, traffic speed, and sight distances.

“Really took a good, robust look at traffic concerns at that intersection. They looked at crash data as well,” said Bart Walls, Madison County Highway Superintendent.

Madison County Sheriff’s Office provided crash reports and there have been eight crashes in the last three years at the intersection of Windy City and Old Humboldt Road. The number of crashes puts the area slightly higher than what the state would consider normal, but not high enough for the intersection to be considered a high crash location.

The engineering company made recommendations for a handful of low cost improvements the county could make, including the relocation of signage, replacement of current signage, improving striping and possibly rumble strips.

“Put in some stop bars, just to make the intersection more apparent and safer for all involved that use that particular area,” said Walls.

Committee members want to reduce crashes at the intersection to none, although that is hard on a budget.

“It’s difficult to get to a zero accident situation without spending a significant amount of money doing major safety improvements such as the edition of a roundabout,” said Walls.

The speed limit on Lower Brownsville Road was also discussed. The board voted to have a speed study completed by the Madison County Sheriff’s Department to determine what is an appropriate speed limit.

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