A public meeting open house was held at the S.D. Army National Guard Armory in Wagner on Thursday, November 4th. Many local businesses and community members attended the open house.

The South Dakota Department of Transportation answered questions and worries that the public had at the July meeting. Here are a few:

Two years of construction will kill the business in Wagner.

The project consists of 2.1 miles of urban reconstruction. Due to the length and complexity of urban reconstruction, it is not possible to complete construction in one construction season. SD Highway 46 will be constructed in phases and will be open to traffic. Signage will be provided during construction directing travelers to specific businesses. Entrances to businesses will remain open, except for short periods of time when a specific entrance is being constructed. At those times, every effort will be made to provide an alternate access.

Our crash data is well under the statewide average so why do we have to change?

The SDDOT works to enhance safety with each project. While the 2015-2020 crash rate of 1.16 is lower than the statewide weighted crash rate of 1.92 for a similar roadway, studies have proven that 3-lane roadways are safer than 4-lane roadways by as much as 47%. A predictive crash analysis of this corridor shows that this roadway would benefit from a 28% to 37% reduction in annual crashes, depending on type of crash. The 3-lane roadway, with the center continuous two way left turn lane significantly reduces rear-end, sideswipe and left-turn crashes.

Oversized equipment will have trouble due to the decreased pavement width-houses, farm equipment, slow moving vehicles, etc.

On a 4-lane roadway, any vehicle (load) or equipment 12 feet or wider will have to use both travel lanes, effectively eliminating the ability to legally pass the vehicle/equipment. The 14 footwide lanes of the 3 lane roadway will better accommodate wide(r) loads. Farmer owned and operated equipment is exempt from width and height limitations. No equipment wider than 8'6" may be operated on a State highway between one-half hour after sunset and one-half hour before sunrise. All farm machinery designed for travel at speeds of 25 mph or slower must display a slow-moving vehicle emblem.

The slower speeds on this roadway allow a driver time to negotiate oncoming wide vehicles.

Traffic counts-When/Where and how were they taken?

New counts were obtained to address concerns at the school, the Walnut Avenue intersection and the Main Avenue intersection.

The counts were taken:

• Main Ave and SD Hwy 46 intersection - Tuesday, August 31, 2021 and Friday-Sunday, September 3,4 and 5, 2021.

• Walnut Ave and SD Hwy 46 intersection - Tuesday, August 24, 2021.

• Wagner School north entrance onto SD Hwy 46- Thursday, September 2, 2021.

All counts were obtained between 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. using Miovision video equipment to record traffic. The videos were sent to a third party vendor to determine counts. High volume events are not typically analyzed. They handed out charts of traffic counts from 2014, 2016 and 2021.

Several community members and local business owners stood up and spoke their concerns.

Michele Juffer, Wagner Community Development Coordinator, asked "Help me understand this, right now you are offering a three lane with a five foot boulevard, five foot side walk, 14 foot driving lane. My question is has there been any discussion about only doing a sidewalk on one side? I say that because I honestly did an audit and I drove that lane 53 times and of that I saw 11 pedestrians, and I am not saying that is right or wrong but with that in mind that could give us more surface space so that we could potentially have more room for traffic than 14 foot."

Mike Behm answered "We have development on both sides so we don't do that. We have to provide equal access to businesses."

Joey Jaton, Owner of Mid-Town, and his wife, spoke of their concerns about how the three lane will work for them pulling trailers in and out of their business.

Mike speaks that he isn't going to disagree it will probably be more of a challenge for them. He says he will continue to look into it and figure out the best way to make it easier for them.

Other community members spoke that they felt this is a done deal and that they aren't being heard. Mike replied "No it is not a done deal, that is why we are here tonight." The community stressed their passion for the four lane road.

Two commissioners spoke that they came to hear everyones thoughts and if anyone has any further concerns or questions to contact them. They wanted everyone to know they are aware and that is why they came to hear comments and do what's best for the small town, their staff and the state.

Mike stressed that he was not trying to portray that this is a done deal. He said "please, please, please share this information with others and let us know what your thoughts and concerns are, we wrote a contact email scott.rabern@state. sd.us on eveyones hand outs. We want to make sure we are working with the community, as we move forward and look at reconstruction projects in the community."