During the June 26 meeting of the township board of trustees, Public Safety Director/Police Chief Eric Luke responded to a complaint about road closures from resident Mary Ban who said the poor conditions of the roads and the closures caused her to be late for the meeting.
Luke explained that the police department had been notified of a construction plan by officials from the Washtenaw County Road Commission just days before the current month-long drain improvement project began. Construction is currently under way along Rawsonville Road between Talladay and Willis roads in the township.
Luke explained that despite multiple efforts to notify drivers of the road closures in the area, motorists continued to violate the posted closure signs. He said there were already 20 violations issued to drivers who ignored the signs. The penalty is three points on the offender's driver's license and a $180 fine.
Luke said despite warnings posted on Nixle and on Facebook, drivers continued to violate the closure, which is necessary, he reminded the trustees, to protect the workers.
“We've had a busy couple of days with traffic enforcement,” Luke said. “I want to make sure everybody understands that when you come to a sign that says road closed to through traffic or local traffic only, that means you need to take a different route.” Luke added that the only traffic allowed past the signs would be for drivers who have no other option to reach their destinations.
“There are about 20 drivers who now have a piece of paper in their car that says they were in violation of that traffic rule,” he said. He added that he was well aware that those drivers were “very upset”, but his department intended to continue to vigorously enforce the restrictions in the construction zones.
“The first run at 7 this morning was a road commission worker who said people were actually going through front yards to get around where they (workers) were trying to set equipment,” Luke explained.
“That is dangerous. Our job is to protect those workers when they close that road so we will be out there every day and every night writing tickets during the duration of that closure because people apparently don't understand and don't see the warnings.”
Luke reiterated his multiple attempts to notify drivers of the closures and the penalties for violating the rules but that “people just did not take the time to even read or they think their time is more important than the safety of those people working there.
“We're going to do what we have to do” to protect the workers,” he concluded. Information regarding the ongoing closures and locations is available at: https://www.wcroads.org/road-closure-with-detour-rawsonville-rd-augusta-twp/
