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Department of Transportation, Maintenance and Operations Division, recommending the Board adopt and authorize the Chair to sign Resolution 151-2020 sanctioning right turn restrictions from Sawmill Road and North Upper Truckee Road onto Highway 50 on a temporary basis from May through October 2021.
FUNDING: Road Fund.
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DISCUSSION / BACKGROUND
In August of 2019, a proposal was presented to the Department of Transportation (Transportation) by a Meyers neighborhood committee to restrict twenty-one (21) different turning movements from County roadways onto U.S. Highway 50 and State Route 89. The purpose of these proposed restrictions was to increase public safety and facilitate the orderly movement of tourist traffic leaving the Tahoe Basin, in all weather conditions, during peak weekend and holiday traffic periods. The proposal was presented on September 5, 2019 at the South Lake Tahoe Traffic Advisory Committee meeting and ultimately the South Lake Tahoe Traffic Advisory Committee requested Transportation to perform an Engineering and Traffic Study at one or two locations for potential turn restrictions. Transportation determined the focus needs to be on whether or not tourist traffic is being successfully relocated back onto U.S. Highway 50, whether or not emergency vehicle response time is improved and if there are any other unforeseen issues that would be made worse by the proposed turn restrictions.
The limited scope provides two intersection locations where turning movement restrictions were studied. The first location was North Upper Truckee Road at U.S. Highway 50 and the second location was Sawmill Road at U.S. Highway 50. Currently there are not any turn restrictions at these two locations. A turning movement count was conducted by Transportation on September 15, 2019 at both locations. During the three (3) hour turning movement count on North Upper Truckee Road, it was noted during the peak hourly period from 11:45 am to 12:45 pm, 226 vehicle...
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