That’s when a contractor will begin widening the roadway near the intersection to create protected left turn lanes on Kenyon Road for motorists turning onto Avenue C.

“The project stems from the crash history at this intersection,” said City Engineer Austin Morrow. “According to Iowa DOT data, we have seen approximately 40 incidents at this intersection in the past five years and approximately 70 incidents in the past 10.”

According to Morrow, more than 50 percent of those incidents were reported as rear end, angled (oncoming left turn) or same direction sideswipe accidents which can be indicative of an unprotected left turn.

Construction work will begin on Monday with a majority of the work to begin by November. Additional paving on the northwest side of the intersection as well as replacing and upgrading the traffic signals is also part of the project. Additional median work will be completed next spring once the traffic controls for the nearby Kenyon Road Bridge project are removed, as Morrow said construction crews will need to access the northeast bound lanes to complete the work.

Castor Construction, of Fort Dodge, was hired by the City Council in March to do the project at a cost of $1,291,770.69.

“We were able to work with the Iowa DOT to get this project completed while they have traffic control set up for their bridge project,” said Morrow. “This helps our project tremendously to save time and money on what is, and would be, a complicated traffic control set up. By being able to piggyback off their traffic control, we are able to get this project done without an additional prolonged impact to traffic along Kenyon Road in the near future.”

With the intersection being inaccessible to traffic, residents will need to enter and exit the neighborhood to and from the west or north and utilize A Street to access U.S. Highway 169 or Second Avenue South

Morrow said that motorists along Kenyon Road will not see much of an impact from the project. The traffic control that is currently in place for the DOT project will simply be extended slightly to the southwest.