Grosse Pointe News

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Majority of Lakeshore signage deemed unnecessary, optionalFree Access


Photo by Renee Landuyt
The confusing signage was placed along Lakeshore last October.

GROSSE POINTE FARMS — For the first time since Wayne County placed more than 180 road signs along Lakeshore in October, there is light at the end of the road.

Two-thirds of the signs were deemed either unnecessary or optional, according to a road safety audit completed in July, by a consultant engineering company hired by the Michigan Department of Transportation.

According to Farms Mayor Louis Theros, the preliminary findings reported every “Do not enter” sign was unnecessary, along with almost every “one-way” sign being optional. Two signs facing each other only are necessary when there’s a 40-foot gap in the turn around, he added, but Lakeshore has 20-foot gaps.

“At the end of the day, I’m hoping that about 60 to 70 percent of those signs go away,” said Theros, who spearheaded the 10-month mitigation effort.

The signs were placed from Warner to just past Moross off the back of construction along the stretch. In the months following, the county maintained its position that the signage meets MDOT’s manual on traffic control devices and must be adhered to since federal dollars were used in the project.   

“(The MDOT report) basically stated that most of those signs that were placed out there were optional and that in the circumstances on how they were placed, just because of the close proximity of some of the signs, that it did in fact create confusion,” City Manager Shane Reeside reported, “and hence their recommendation is going to be the removal of a substantial number of signs.”

It is Reeside’s understanding the county won’t be required to follow the audit’s recommendations.

“The ultimate say will rest on Wayne County,” he explained, “but we’re confident that they’ll rely on the findings of the safety audit.”

A finalized written report on the findings is expected to be delivered to the city and county within the next month. Reeside anticipates it will remain similar to the preliminary findings relayed in July. “The city will strongly request that it be done as soon as possible,” he said of signage removal.