ADRIAN — With road work already planned for Maple Avenue later this year, the city of Adrian is taking advantage of the opportunity to make some changes to the intersection of Maple and East Maumee Street near the Lenawee County Fairgrounds. 

City commissioners approved plans to redesign the intersection at their May 4 meeting.

Currently, Maple Avenue intersects East Maumee Street at an angle. Engineering services director Matt Tomaszewski told the commission last month that this often leads to westbound drivers veering onto Maple at a high speed, rather than slowing down to turn like they would at a 90-degree intersection.

“A lot of people take that route heading westbound and speed through there,” he said.

Tomaszewski proposed the idea of making Maple Avenue curve so that it intersects Maumee at a 90-degree angle. Because road construction on Maple Avenue is already scheduled for this fall, Tomaszewski said, that presents a good opportunity to make a change.

“We thought now is the time to do it if we wanted to make things safer,” he said.

“Our goal here is to slim down the intersection, make it more pedestrian-friendly, and allow people to actually turn into it as an intersection rather than veer into it.”

This will also reduce the length of the pedestrian crossing from 128 feet to 45 feet, and would also allow the intersection to be aligned with South Dean Street on the other side of Maumee.

Tomaszewski said the engineering work for the change will cost about $25,000.

Currently, there are barrels set up at the intersection to mimic the intended future traffic flow.