CLEARLAKE – Drivers traveling along Highway 53 and Olympic Drive should practice extra caution this week as Caltrans workers will be on scene at the busy intersection beginning to install stop signs and striping.

Weather permitting, work will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, March 1, through Friday, March 5, Caltrans reported.

One-way traffic control will be in effect, and Caltrans said drivers should expect five-minute delays when traveling through the area.

The safety improvements to the intersection will include an all-way stop in preparation for a traffic signal which is still a few years out, officials reported.

At last Thursday's Clearlake City Council meeting, Caltrans District 1 Chief Traffic Safety Officer Ralph Martinelli made a presentation to the council about the intersection, which he said has had more than two dozen collisions – with three fatalities – over the last several years.

Based on a study of the intersection, Martinelli said Caltrans found that the primary type of collision taking place at the intersection is related to left turn movements.

The signalization project for the intersection has been merged into a larger highway improvement project along several miles of Highway 53, Martinelli said.

Normally, such a signalization project has a two- to three-year time frame for construction, but adding it into the larger overall highway improvement project cut that time down, he explained.

“But still the signals won't go in until summer or late fall of 2012,” Martinelli said.

To address the continued broadside collisions Caltrans is installing stop signs, Martinelli told the council. Portable message signs before the intersection warn drivers of the work ahead.

In addition to signs that will caution drivers about the new stop signs, Martinelli said “stop ahead” pavement markings and rumble strips will be installed.

“We don't want to trade broadsides for rearends,” he said.

The Clearlake Police Department will have a presence while the stop signs are going in, Martinelli added.

Mayor Judy Thein asked if it was possible to speed up the signalization process.

Martinelli said combining the signalization and highway improvement project already has shaved off about 12 to 18 months, but because of the needed improvements he said he didn't think they could deliver the improvements any quicker than the summer or fall of 2012.

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