Temporary signal not so temporary

]Commuters to Rapid City have noticed another slowdown on their route: a traffic light at the Moon Meadows Highway 16 intersection. This light is considered “temporary” by South Dakota Department of Transportation (SDDOT) standards. 

But that term is a bit misleading.

“The newly installed traffic signal at the intersection of US16 and Moon Meadows Drive will remain in place after the Sheridan Lake Road project is completed,” says  Adam Krogman, Project Manager with Avid4 Engineering, the firm designing the reconstruction of Sheridan Lake Road from Corral Drive to Catron Boulevard.

Krogman explains that, “the SDDOT considers this a temporary signal as it will likely be removed when this intersection is reconstructed in the future to comply with the recommendations of the US16 Corridor Study.”

As for when that removal takes place, it’s likely down the road. Way down the road.

Mike Carlson who is the Rapid City area engineer for the SDDOT agrees  the Moon Meadows light is temporary until the SDDOT decides to do something else. 

“It could be signaled or it could be an intersection design,” Carlson said. But he says that plans probably won’t materialize until 2030. 

At that point they’ll do some more exploring and find the most “economical and reasonable solution.”

He said the light itself was part of a Tax Increment Finance (TIF) that took place on the east side of the highway with a developer’s upgrade. With the creation of the TIF a traffic signal was purchased. The signal stayed in storage in the Rapid City yard until the Sheradin Lake project began, at which point the SDDOT saw some increased back-up on Moon Meadows and figured it would be a great opportunity to put in the light. 

Carlson notes that Rapid City is under immense pressure for development. The light itself didn’t go through a traditional public input process but the TIF connected with its purchase did. 

Carlson says the way that the signal is set up now the whole point is to keep the traffic on 16 moving efficiently.

 Ideally if there was a traffic operation center set up in the area the SDDOT could adjust the signal to correspond to traffic patterns, adjusting signal times to account for more traffic during the morning or afternoon rush hour or weekdays and weekends.

Long-term plans for the 16A corridor still include  the first-of-its-kind in the state  reduced-conflict intersection at Neck Yoke and 16A.  Construction is currently scheduled to begin in 2026, says SDDOT Principal Engineer Steven Gramm.

The SDDOT is unsure what the 16A corridor will end up looking like but Carlson says it wants to avoid the mistakes it made in the 16B (bypass) project. 

“We learned a lesson on 16B to find other solutions,” Carlson said. 

That might end up being a reduced-conflict intersection with Moon Meadows as the minor route and 16 as the major route similar to what’s going to go in at Neck Yoke.

 Carlson does note that every time a new signal is added, however, you do create more accidents. Usually those are rear-end accidents as opposed to side or T-bone accidents. 

By 2030 the Moon Meadows intersection will look vastly different. Carlson says there are already plans for a  convenience store on the southeast quadrant that will generate a lot of traffic meeting the threshold of warranting a signal.

As for a temporary signal for summer traffic that is not on the table. 

“Normally the federal government doesn’t like to see something like that,” Carlson explains.  “If there is a signal they would like to see it lit up.”