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Resident urges DeWitt to address tractor-trailer traffic, collapsed culvert on Bachelor Road
Summary
A resident told the Town Board that repeated tractor-trailer use of a residential road has caused a collapsed culvert, roadway damage and safety concerns for pedestrians and a nearby home daycare; the board agreed to investigate signage and turning-radius warnings.
Barb Turner, a resident, told the DeWitt Town Board during public comment on March 24 that tractor-trailer traffic on Bachelor (recorded as Bachelet/Bachelor) Road has worsened and recently caused a collapsed culvert and a multi-hour road closure.
"It took 4 and a half hours to get out, and there's marks in the road from the tow truck trying to drag it out. The culvert is collapsed, so now water is not going through," Turner said. She said the road is being used as a bypass by tractor-trailers that do not belong on the narrow residential street.
Turner said she has lived on the road since the 1980s, that the area contains about 13 homes and the town’s largest park (Maxwell Park), and that a house on the road operates a home daycare. She reported repeated incidents in which large vehicles swing wide and get caught in a deep roadside ditch and warned that pedestrian injuries are likely if the pattern continues.
The board discussed possible short-term responses. A board member said staff would ask "Rock" (public works staff, as referenced in the meeting) to post signage at both ends of the road indicating no tractor-trailer through traffic and consider a turning-radius warning sign; those commitments were discussed during the public-comment exchange. The board also discussed investigating whether the home daycare is operating with appropriate state approvals.
No formal action was taken at the meeting beyond the board’s direction to staff to investigate signage and related public-works measures; the resident asked that the town pursue physical warnings and evaluate the culvert repair needs.
Turner provided photographs to the board in advance of the meeting and described having observed long traffic blockages and repeated damage to the roadway.
