Morro Bay City officials will ask the public what should be done with a troublesome intersection and main entrance to town at a public meeting next week.
The Public Works Department is hosting the event set for 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 10 at the Morro Bay Community center, 1001 Kennedy Way.
“This meeting will present options, like a traffic signal and roundabout,” and will have time for discussion and input from the community,” reads a notice from public works.
Those planning to attend should RSVP via email to: GARIAS@MORROBAYCA.GOV.
The 41/Main intersection is among the busiest in town and has been declared inadequate to handle the traffic load for some time. It was one of three intersections a roads study looked at for putting in a roundabout; San Jacinto-Main-Hwy 1, and Quintana/Morro Bay Boulevard being the other two. Only the Quintana-MBB intersection got a roundabout. A Main-San Jacinto roundabout was ruled out by a former city council but the idea lives on at Main/Hwy 41.
For many years now the City has tried to address the problem, settling for the past decade or more on putting in a roundabout as the most desirable solution.
In conjunction with the funding agency, San Luis Obispo Council of Governments, and Caltrans, the roundabout idea has been bogged down and projected costs have risen.
The trouble with the intersection was shown recently when work on Hwy 101’s Cuesta Grade drove commuter traffic onto Hwy 1 and then Hwy 41, backing the cars up on the off ramp.
The 4-way stop backs up at other times in the day especially with traffic at the high school, both vehicular and pedestrian before and after school and lunch time; also, work on a 35-unit apartment complex a block down the street is nearing an end and will add some traffic.
The City is planning to soon make a decision on which project to undertake and wants to get input from residents
