Clear Lake, Cerro Gordo County ask for help funding traffic study for dangerous intersection

CLEAR LAKE — The City of Clear Lake and Cerro Gordo County have jointly sent a letter to the Iowa Department of Transportation asking that they conduct a traffic study to make improvements to the intersection of 27th Avenue South and South 8th Street, just east of the Oak Hills Golf Course.

The intersection is stop-controlled on 27th Avenue South but has prompted safety concerns due to the history of crashes at the intersection, including a fatal accident in 2020. Most of the crashes have resulted from vehicles failing to stop at the stop sign.

Cerro Gordo County Engineer Brandon Billings says there are other issues that need to be addressed at that intersection.  “There’s been several severe accidents there, there’s some sight distance issues. The point of the traffic study is to identify a short-term and a long-term solution to that intersection in the interest of the safety of the public.”

City Administrator Scott Flory says he hopes the DOT will approve a Traffic Engineering Assistance Program, or TEAP, grant for the study.  “The application letter did go in to the DOT on that, and both the city and the county are applicants on that. We appreciate the good cooperation that we got from Cerro Gordo County, specifically the Engineering Department, in working towards that project. Hopefully we’ll hear something back in a couple of months maybe on that one.”

The city and county hope the traffic study would be done starting in mid-May to capture some of the seasonal traffic and to allow the governments to seek funding through the Transportation Safety Improvement Program later this year.