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Residents warn widening on Kelly Creek Road could worsen speeds as county plans safety improvements
Summary
Residents and farmers pressed the county June 23 about safety on Kelly Creek Road as commissioners described a planned upgrade—two-foot paved shoulders and rumble strips—to reduce lane-departure crashes; engineer reported 15 accidents in five years and acknowledged tradeoffs in widening.
The St. Clair County Commission heard extended public testimony June 23 from Kelly Creek Road residents who said planned roadway work could increase speeds and traffic through their neighborhoods while county engineers described targeted safety countermeasures.
County Engineer Clay Phillips told the board the Kelly Creek project will include two-foot paved shoulders and rumble strips positioned 6–8 inches outside the white line; he said the measure is a standard countermeasure to reduce lane-departure crashes. "One of the most effective countermeasures to lane departures... is the two-foot wide safety improvement paving along with the rumble strips," Phillips said, adding the project addresses a corridor that has seen 15 accidents in the last five years.
Residents urged more study and additional safety measures. Blake Wester, who said he has lived on Kelly Creek Road his entire life, told commissioners many residents were blindsided by contractor activity and warned that widening would "invite more people to that road." Farmer Jack Butler described a fatality and multiple crashes on his property and urged lowering speeds, better enforcement, and geometric fixes to reduce spinouts in wet conditions: "I'm concerned about having that much traffic on the road in an agricultural district," Butler said.
Commissioners acknowledged the dilemma: if the county seeks federal funding, design standards and certain widening are required to qualify as a major collector. Commissioners and staff discussed engineering tradeoffs—paved shoulders (not widening the travel lane), rumble-strip placement, bridge constraints and potential future work on signage and sight-distance improvements.
What it means: The planned approach aims to reduce lane-departure crashes without increasing travel-lane width (which engineers and some residents fear would encourage greater speeds). The county will pursue the next steps of the approved design and coordinate details on rumble-strip placement and bridge approaches with contractor and state standards.
What’s next: Engineering staff will proceed with the approved project's design details and report back on final rumble-strip placement, guardrail adjustments near the bridge, and other site-specific safety improvements.
