Temporary Speed Tables in Morningside will Become Permanent

The temporary speed tables the city put in Morningside subdivision are so effective, some residents there would like to keep them.

And for $44,000 the city will pay to make the temporary devices permanent.

The city council unanimously approved spending the money to make all the neighborhood speed tables the same four inch height Thursday. The money would come out of the project’s existing budget.

“If we don't have some kind of a disaster between here and the end of the project we’ll be fine,” said Paul Bertels, the city's director of traffic.

Norene Marlow, president of the Morningside Meadows subdivision homeowners association, talked to the council about retaining the traffic calming devices.

The association talked "exhaustively" about the speed tables, she said, choosingto retain them in a close vote. Six members were for keeping the speed tables; five against; and another member abstained from voting.

The city also polled the 16 homeowners who’s houses are next to the speed tables. Bertels said seven voted to keep them, two voted against, and the other five never responded.

To make the speed tables permanent, city crews will mill and resurface the raised asphalt. Then apply brick stamping, making them look like the other speed tables already installed on Harn Blvd and other parts of the subdivision.

Crews are putting the finishing touches on the roadwork. The main subdivision stretch on Harn has been transformed from a stop and go speed zone with roundabouts, speed humps and speed bumps bulb out medians and other traffic calming measures.

Bulb out medians act like a parked car, which tend to help slow drivers, Bertels said. 

Council member Bill Jonson said he drove the stretch of road earlier that day coming off of US 19. He is convinced the traffic measures are working.

“I was surprised at how much (the bulb out) was slowing me down," Jonson said. “When I went over (a speed table) it definitely slowed me down."