The intersection at Eighth Street and Main Avenue in downtown Durango will remain without a traffic signal for several more months while the city replaces the damaged traffic signal through a public bidding process.
A tractor trailer ripped the traffic control pole out of its steel and concrete foundation in early September, leaving the intersection without stop lights, said Levi Lloyd, director of city operations.
City workers installed a four-way stop at the intersection, but drivers blew through the stop signs on Main Avenue, possibly not used to a stop sign, Lloyd said. The city has since removed the stop signs on Main Avenue but kept the ones on Eighth Street.
“Being a historic traffic signal that’s been there since the early to mid-80s, you get a citizen, they travel those ways and they get used to having a controlled intersection,” he said. “A significant change throws a monkey wrench into the works.”
It could be months before a new, permanent traffic-signal pole is installed, Lloyd said.
“A traffic signal is a more robust way to facilitate traffic. There’s a lot of pedestrian traffic there,” he said. “Crossing at a (signal-) controlled intersection is safer.”
bhauff@durangoherald.com
