•5 Traffic Deaths In 12 Month Period
•Construction Will Begin Monday, Oct. 19th
County leaders will soon get something they’ve been asking for when the department of transportation installs four-way stops at three dangerous intersections in rural Harnett County.
The North Carolina Department of Transportation announced Monday work will begin on two intersections on Sheriff Johnson Road — at Johnson Farm Roads and Neills Creek Road — as well as the intersection of Red Hill Church and Ashe Avenue.
The intersections involving Sheriff Johnson Road have been a concern for more than year. In August of 2019, NCDOT Traffic Safety Engineer Janet Whetstone-Perez told the Harnett County Board of Commissioners she was submitting a proposal to her agency for both intersections.
“We have two locations that we are looking at for a potential all-way stop,” Whetstone-Perez told commissioners during a monthly meeting. “We don’t always come to you about an all-way stop, but in this particular case I wanted to because there is a lot going on SR 1615, which is Sheriff Johnson Road on one side and Old Coats Road on the other, between N.C. [Highway] 210 and N.C. [Highway] 27.”
The case for the four-way stop at the intersection with Johnson Farm Road was made stronger after five people were killed in a 12-month span.
Construction on the two Sheriff Johnson Road intersections will be one-day projects on Monday, Oct. 19 with the Red Hill Church and Ashe Avenue work the following day, according to NCDOT officials.
Work will start around 8 a.m. and will be completed later in the day. In case of rain, the work will be postponed.
Currently, all three intersections are traditional two-way stops, drivers will see temporary message boards announcing the new traffic pattern.
In addition to the four-way stops at the two intersections on Sheriff Johnson Road, solar-paneled flashers will be mounted on the stop sign on the righthand shoulder for each approach. There will also be new pavement markings and additional stop signs at all three locations.
As far as the intersection at Red Hill Church Road and Ashe Avenue, the existing yellow flashing light will be changed to a red flashing light, according to NCDOT officials.
NCDOT reminds drivers to follow these rules when approaching an all-way stop:
The first vehicle at the intersection has the right of way;
When two or more vehicles reach an intersection at the same time, the vehicle to the right has the right of way and may go straight or, if legal and after signaling, turn left or right;
When two facing vehicles approach an intersection simultaneously, both drivers can move straight ahead or turn right. If one driver is going straight while the other wants to turn left, the driver who wants to turn left must yield;
Even with the right of way, drivers should remember to use appropriate turn signals and watch for pedestrians and other vehicles.
-Dunn Daily Record
