SIDE STREETS: Nightmare on Platte Avenue for city drivers

   When Kim Polomka bought his house on East Platte Avenue in 2001, he had no idea he had just purchased a frontrow seat to a demolition derby.

   But Polomka quickly discovered that the stretch of Platte west of Union Boulevard is more than an eclectic collection of century-old bungalows. It's a traffic engineer's nightmare.

   Consider the six-block stretch west of Union: The city has logged 67 crashes in three years - in the two eastbound lanes alone.

   Add 49 for the westbound lanes. That's 116 crashes in 36 months.

   Crashes were so frequent that Polomka started keeping a camera handy to document what he was seeing. Today, he has dozens of photos and videos of assorted mayhem on that stretch of Platte. Rear-enders. T-bones. Headons. Burning cars and trucks. Cars twisted into unrecognizable heaps of metal and plastic. (See some of Polomka's photos at my Side Streets blog at gazette.com.)

   "Most of the accidents are rear-endings because people are slowing to turn and people behind them don't see them," Polomka said. "And the speeds are so phenomenal."

   Polomka feels especially bad about two crashes that involved him.

   "I was waiting and someone slowed down to let me turn," he said. "I thought it was nice. I waved and started to turn."

   Bang!

   Some poor driver's good deed was rewarded with a rear-end collision.

   "I felt so bad about that," Polomka said. The same thing happened to him again just a few weeks later.

   Polomka became so concerned about what he witnessed each day that he started contacting the city, urging that signs be installed to warn motorists of the dangers of East Platte.

   "I suggested they put up a sign designating this as a high-risk collision area," he said. He'd seen a similar sign on Platte at Academy Boulevard.

   He was dismayed to learn the city no longer uses those signs. And he became frustrated because he felt his concerns were not being taken seriously by the city.

   But a call to Dave Krauth, the city's principal traffic engineer, revealed East Platte is atop his list of priorities.

   Krauth said the city recently was awarded a $300,000 federal "hazard elimination and safety" grant to reduce the dangers of driving East Platte.

   In fact, Friday was the deadline for engineering consultants to submit proposals to the city to address the problem.

   "We have not been ignoring anyone," Krauth said. "We knew this would be a big project. We wanted to do it right. We had to be patient."

   Krauth explained that Platte is not some neighborhood street where he could slap in a few speed humps or a roundabout to calm traffic and reduce crashes.

   This is old U.S. 24. It's a major arterial designed to handle large volumes of cars trying to get back and forth across town. It's going to take months of public meetings to figure out how to slow traffic and reduce the rate of crashes.

   "We have no preconceived notions about how to proceed," Krauth said. "But there are only a certain number of things we can do. Simply posting a lower speed limit doesn't work."

   Widening the street to add turn lanes or restricting turns may be among the solutions. Krauth said it will take six to nine months to figure things out. He hopes to begin construction next summer.

   Meanwhile, Polomka will remain busy with his camera.

   "Maybe my photos will help people understand how traffic can get a bit crazy," he said. 

   Tell me about your neighborhood: 636-0193 or bill.vogrin@gazette.com