College Parkway safety worm will return

Despite signs forbidding left turns from Hot Springs Road onto College Parkway, drivers frustrated with constant road closures and detours have been making the dangerous turn anyway.

A concrete "worm" - two strips of curved concrete - at the intersection was removed during construction on College Parkway.

Carson City officials hope the concrete safety device, which made it impossible to cross College Parkway at Hot Springs Road, will be put back by next week.

Since its removal, resident David Smith, who drives by the intersection daily, said he saw a return to the intersection's more dangerous days when three cars piled up in an accident there about two weeks ago.

"They need to replace it strictly for safety," Smith said. "Some drivers want to cross whether they can or not, and you can't have a policeman stationed there 24 hours a day. Because the road bends there, people create a hazardous situation.

"When they put the worm in there was definitely more traffic control. I didn't notice any accidents at the intersection until they took the worm out and people started traveling across College onto Hot Springs."

A recent city utility relocation forced the movement of the worm to help control traffic during construction, said Carson City Construction Manager John Benzing.

He said taking the worm out helped move traffic during the various construction projects recently in the area. While College Parkway is a state-maintained road, the city will have to replace the worm because it was removed during a city construction project.

The Nevada Department of Transportation installed the worm in April 1999, said Frederick Droes, NDOT chief safety traffic engineer. The intersection had been controlled by a four-way stop until October 1997 when the state removed the stop signs on College Parkway.

There were 35 accidents in the intersection from Nov. 1, 1997 until the worm island's installation. Since then, there have been six accidents recorded in the intersection, all rear end collisions, Droes said.