The city of Durango is dealing with further complications at the intersection of Florida Road and Holly Avenue after the temporary stoplights, installed last week, were vandalized late Sunday or early Monday.
Durango Police Department was investigating and conducting interviews on Monday morning attempting to identify a culprit. The city’s streets division was first notified of the outage about 7:30 a.m. Monday.
During Monday’s investigation, DPD and city officials discovered wires had been cut near the termination point on the stoplights. That caused the lights to start flashing red, an indicator that the light was not functioning properly.
The city is uncertain how long the repairs will take because of where the wires were cut.
“The person or people who vandalized the lights did so with tools and cut the wires very close to where they’re terminated, so it’s going to be difficult to get into the lights to repair them,” said Laura Rieck, public outreach and education coordinator for the city.
Holly Avenue has served as the primary detour for the County Road 250/251 improvement project, which began in April. Since then, Florida Road has faced numerous traffic delays. The city installed temporary stop signs at Holly and Florida, but those caused traffic to back up and generated complaints from residents.
“We originally had complaints about this intersection not having anything, so we put up the stop sign. Then, we had complaints about the stop signs, and so we put up the traffic lights,” Rieck said. “Now, the traffic lights get vandalized.”
She said the city is not doing away with the traffic lights, and DPD will be keeping an eye out for more suspicious activity once the light are repaired. Police installed a portable camera at the intersection on Tuesday.
For the most part, the city received positive feedback last week regarding the decision to switch from a stop sign to a traffic light, Rieck said.
The traffic lights were set on a 75-second timer, though the timing varies depending on how busy Florida Road is.
The city’s streets division and public works department are working to resolve the issue before school resumes from fall break on Tuesday, when increased traffic backups are likely to occur.
tbrown@durangoherald.com
