The crosswalk on Cedar Springs at Reagan Street has been a maintenance nightmare for the city of Dallas since it was installed in 2004.
Last week we reported that the city of Dallas will install 45 new streetlights in Oak Lawn over the next 60 days, in response to Dallas Stonewall Young Democrats’ Light Up Oak Lawn safety campaign. But speaking of lights, what about the crosswalk on Cedar Springs Road at Reagan Street, which has again stopped working? Well, a city official told Instant Tea today that it will likely be October before the city can repair the broken lights in the crosswalk.
Alex Wong, the city’s program manager for traffic field operations, said in response to complaints over the last few weeks, a city inspector went out to check on the crosswalk this weekend. What he found is that more than half of the ground-level, flashing lights have stopped working. This marks at least the fifth time the city has had to repair the crosswalk since it was first installed in 2004. It’s the only crosswalk of its kind in Dallas, and it’s proven to be a poor design, Wong said.
Each time it costs the city roughly $5,000 to replace the lights, which are malfunctioning in part due to the uneven street surface. But it would cost $30,000 or $4o,o00 to replace the whole system, and that’s money the city doesn’t have.
“It’s really a Catch-22,” Wong said. “We really do not like the system, but what can I do? There’s no funding available for us to go with another approach.”
For now, the city will continue to repair the crosswalk, but first officials must identify a vendor for the parts and clear a backlog of other projects, Wong said.
In February 2009, the lights in the crosswalk had been out for more than six months when the city finally replaced them. Weeks later, after a construction crew mistakenly cut the wires to the lights, the city announced that it would no longer repair them. The announcement outraged local business owners, and the city finally agreed to repair the crosswalk. Those repairs were completed just 18 months ago — in December 2009.
Let’s add this up shall we. Fixed five times at $5000 per repair.
Wong: “But it would cost $30,000 or $40,000 to replace the whole system”.
If they had figured out the poor design and the cause early on, the city would have already have had almost all of the money needed for a replacement system.
Honestly they should bite the bullet and just build an elevated cross walk above the road.. or install a similar stop light on the corner like the one located on Throckmorton and CS.
Cars tend to not understand the meaning of the blinking lights anyways..
It seems like it was a good idea originally, but it seems like most cars don’t pay any attention to the flashing lights anyway.
I wish they could run two really tall poles (to accommodate tall trucks) on either side of the crosswalk, and run icicle xmas lights along the top with warning signs. It would light up the walk better and get cars attention. It could add a neat ambiance to the street as well.
After they repair it the tenth time, they’ll go ahead and replace it with another new and untried design.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
I still think there should be a drag queen crossing guard.