A traffic study recommends expanding Detroit Road to two lanes of traffic each way with a center turning lane. (Graphic courtesy of HTNB)

Detroit – Dover Center intersection to be widened in 2010
Rest of Detroit could expand to five lanes in future years
By Kevin Kelley
Westlake
Published July 16, 2008

The intersection of Detroit and Dover Center roads will be widened by the end of the summer of 2010 to allow for better traffic flow, Westlake Engineer Bob Kelly said.

Eighty percent of the project will be paid for through a $2.2 million safety grant from the Ohio Department of Transportation. The city will contribute the remaining $600,000 of the cost.

“This will greatly improve the efficiency of the intersection,” Kelly told West Life.

Kelly said the plan is for workers to begin relocating utility lines at the intersection toward the end of 2009.

The work on the Detroit-Dover Center is part of a larger recommendation to widen Detroit Road from Clague Road to Bagley Road. However, no additional construction work has received funding or approval.

The plan to widen Detroit Road was the subject of a public meeting held at Westlake City Hall back in April. Residents were able to review a traffic study completed by the engineering firm of HTNB.

Jon Lorincz, project manager for HNTB, said widening Detroit Road will improve safety and traffic flow and support economic development.

A four-page handout summarizing the study’s conclusions noted that crash rates along Detroit exceed the statewide average for similar facilities.

“Future traffic projections developed for year 2032 indicate that without improvements, several intersections within the study area will fail,” the summary stated.

Several residents who attended the meeting told West Life they were concerned about what the proposed widening would mean to them.

Phil Cooper, who lives on Detroit near the Bassett Road intersection, said losing a portion of his property to enable the widening was a concern. He said he was worried it would adversely affect the value of his property.

“There are too many houses in Westlake that are on quiet streets,” he said. “Who’s going to want to buy a residential home on a five-lane highway?”

Cooper also said he believed traffic will decrease in coming years due to the rising price of gas.

Marilynn Kubach also said she was concerned about the loss of property.

“My concern is that my house is going to be on the street,” she said.

Another Detroit resident, Harvey Fisher, acknowledged that traffic sometimes backs up during rush hour. However, he said other routes should be utilized before widening Detroit.

Fisher also said the proposed I-90 interchange in Avon and the Crocker-Stearns extension could change traffic patterns.

But Kelly said the study took those into account. Detroit Road includes significant areas of office buildings and multifamily dwelling and few single-family homes, he said. Therefore it’s more beneficial to improve Detroit Road, the existing state route, on which so many commercial and office properties are located, the city engineer said.

Although the study to widen Detroit is just a concept at this stage, Kelly said the intersection at Bradley Road would be addressed next.

Kelly also noted that municipal planning guides since the 1960s have envisioned Detroit Road expanding to five lanes.

“It’s not anything new,” Kelly said.