City of Lakewood announcement.
The City of Lakewood is doing road improvements along Hipkens Road, Angle Lane and Elwood Drive. Improvements include sidewalks on all three streets and a new water main along Hipkins. Roundabouts will be built at the North Way and Hipkins intersection and the Elwood/Dresden/87th intersection.
Improvements
The City is installing sidewalks on both sides of Hipkins Road, along the southwest side of Angle Lane, and the west side of Elwood Drive. In addition, the City is building a new water main along Hipkins. The chicanes are being removed and roundabouts are being built at the North Way and Hipkins intersection and the Elwood/Dresden/87th intersection.
Construction is anticipated to commence in late spring of 2023 and last until early spring of 2024. During construction, the road will be open to single lane of one-way traffic.
Mailboxes
The U.S. Postmaster now prefers the city to replace mailboxes along the roads where sidewalk improvements are done with cluster type mailboxes. Benefits of cluster mailboxes include:
- More efficient mail delivery
- Secure mail and parcel delivery (minimizing theft)
Purchase and installation of the initial cluster mailboxes will be done as part of the sidewalk improvement project. Once the work is complete, ownership and maintenance will automatically transfer to the individuals assigned to each cluster mailbox per Postal Service requirements. Mail service will not be interrupted during construction.
Landscape
Due to the nature of the development, construction will conflict existing trees and in some cases private landscape features built in right-of-way. City staff are available to discuss landscaping impacts with residents, but all landscaping in the city right-of-way is subject to removal and trimming.
How do cluster mailboxes meet the requirements of the American Disabilities Act? Am concerned about disabled and seniors with limited mobility being required to navigate
slick, wet streets and sidewalks to get their mail. My mail is rarely delivered before dark.
Is there a person in charge who advocates for this population?
Flashback to 2001: the City of Lakewood proposes to make a straight road (Hipkins) crooked by installing chicanes and sidewalks to the tune of about $750,000! The needless project was justified by the assertion that it would reduce speeds on Hipkins (it didn’t but rather created an attractive slalom course) and that there were Federal and State funding for it with matching Lakewood funds (that could have been spent on needed local projects).
Chasing such unnecessary projects because someone else (federal, state) was willing to pay for it (matching funding) has always been a problem with local government. Money wasted on unnecessary projects is a waste of OUR money regardless of where that money came from. This chicanery did not sit well with residents along Hipkins and was part of the impetus for Lakewood CARES which subsequently wound up with 3 of its members on council.
Fast forward to 2023: the project manager Troy Pokswinski, (253-093-7729) stated that the chicanes were ineffective and that the water line required Hipkins to be straightened out…..again. Add to that several unnecessary roundabouts and sidewalks to nowhere and you have yet another debacle of wasted transportation funding.
I have to wonder how much this is going to cost us and how much state and federal matching funding is behind this. How about repairing the potholes and deteriorating infrastructure we have to use every day instead, as in 2001, continue to pour money into projects that make little if any sense?
By the way, even back in 2001 there was a significant concern about mailbox placement and the very real possibility of collisions between people retrieving mail and vehicles negotiating the chicanes. How are the cluster mail boxes going to address this potential? There was also the concern about losing property frontage and construction damage along Hipkins due to “improvements”. Who if anyone along Hipkins has be canvased on this matter? Or is it again the City directing instead of representing?
Time for CARES to get involved again?
Oddly enough I agree with Mr. Arbeeny on this subject. Our property taxes go up because of “improvements” so the city has more money to make more “improvements”. Several of my friends are being directly impacted by this ongoing waste of our hard earned money. Soon I may be forced to sell my little house because of outrageous property taxes.
ENOUGH already! Lakewood used to be a great place to live but it’s slowly becoming less and less desirable.
I agree. The last time the City did these charades the property owners lost the roadside parcels of their land, and got no reimbursement or apology. Just stupid wasted time and money. Now they are re doing the charade they originated and going back to the original?
Doesn’t anyone on this committee have a brain? Yes, it will be dangerous for residents to access their mailboxes, and what about the daily traffic jams for school busses? Morning, noon and night they run.
Reducing this congested road to one lane of traffic for at least a year? This should be fun indeed.
And the property owners and the citizens of Lakewood will bear the cost and brunt of this latest edition of construction charades. Yippee.
I can’t say for sure but I think a lot of this wasted effort is being funded through the Transportation Benefit District (TBD) which shows up as an additional $20.00 Lakewood fee on your annual vehicle registration. TBD was passed in 2012 at the maximum allowed by law ($20.00) without a vote of the public. It was originally intended to fix up 6 miles of existing roads around the city’s center. However I don’t think there was ever a “sunset clause” which left open the possibility of a “open checkbook” for city planners to run amok….and run they did. With an endless stream of cash you have to wonder how they kept the roads in good shape before TBD and yet they did. Perhaps it’s time to close out TBD and get back to funding the necessities instead of a city staff wish list.
Weren’t initially attractive plants included with the chicanes on Hipkins Road? I seem to remember most dying from improper maintenance (lack of water?). Please seek advice from landscaping professionals with time-proven reputations for successful projects, as well as use common sense, when allocating tax payer funds for landscaping!
I am happy that school children will finally have sidewalks to safely stand on while waiting for the school bus. I can’t tell you how many times cars came speeding down Hipkins while my child and other children were waiting for the school bus on the dirt. Hipkins has become become one of the busiest roads traveled since I moved here 30 years ago. I walk along Hipkins and sometimes I have to pause and step back into the shrubs where there is a break in the sidewalk to make sure that I don’t get hit. Sections of Hipkins do not allow a lot of room for error or any room at all. Mr. Arbeeny I agree with your statement about the poor foresight and waste on poor street design. I was against the design from the beginning but all we heard from the City Council was that there wasn’t enough money at the time to have sidewalks all the way down Hipkins and now it’s more expensive. I see more pedestrian and cycling traffic along Hipkins than I do on Gravelly Lake Drive where there are extra wide sidewalks, mainly used for refuse bins. No one complains about the pork brought to Gravelly Lake Drive.