Juneau residents will soon see improvements to the lighting and visibility near Mendenhall River Community School. That comes after a woman and two young children were hit by a truck on Back Loop Road last month.
Officials with the state, city and school district met Thursday to discuss the incident. Juneau School Board Vice President Emil Mackey said that improving safety near the school is not just a district problem.
“This is also a community problem because we have playgrounds that are used year-round, whether schools are in or out of session — it’s essentially a park,” he said.
Greg Lockwood, with the state’s Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, said some short-term fixes are already underway, like reflective flagging on signs and high-performance LED lights at the school’s entrance.
The lights should get shipped to Juneau next week. District Superintendent Frank Hauser said installing them will be a priority for the district.
“As soon as they come in, we will get the team to get them installed as quickly as possible so they’re in place,” he said.
Denise Koch, the city’s director of Engineering and Public Works, said another short-term measure is the city’s plan to move its Capital Transit bus stop across the street from the school’s entrance, to a spot that sees less traffic. She says that change is planned for early February.
School Board President Deedie Sorensen, who taught at the school for over two decades, said she thinks it’s a miracle that only now has a serious accident happened there.
“Over the years, the district has done everything they could to discourage people in that neighborhood from walking to school,” she said. “While we can offer all sorts of inducements to people, that does not necessarily change their behavior.”
Sorensen said she hopes the DOT can find ways to slow down drivers in the area.
Lockwood said the DOT is also planning a highway safety improvement project in the area. He says one of the first steps will be a pedestrian crossing study. That will help show how many people are crossing in the area, and what measures might protect them.
