6. Pillar Road ditching complaintJ i
SCANDIA
Staff Report
Date of Meeting: March 9, 2016
To: City Council
From: Neil Soltis, Administrator
Re: Pillar road complaint
Background: On February 9 the Mayor and members of the Council received a complaint from Ray Grunzinger of
22787 Penfield regarding the conditions on Pilar Road. The complaint was based primarily on the ditch works that
was performed in 2015 creating an unsafe condition for vehicles.
Issue: Based on the concerns, what actions should be taken to address this request or the conditions of Pilar
Road? Should the city continue with the drainage improvements along Pilar in 2016?
Details / Discussion: On the day the complaint was received, Mayor Simonson, Engineer Ryan Goodman,
Public Works Director Dave Williams and Administrator Neil Soltis visited the location and spoke with the
complainant. It was determined that a city plow truck was not involved with the incident with the bus and it
was difficult to determine how or where the bus went into the ditch. In reviewing the situation suggestions
for improving the conditions included modifying the grading the road (at least in winter) to eliminate the high
crown to the road and establishing edge markers in areas where there are curves and the road surfaces is
canted towards low areas.
Options:
1) Take no action
2) Request the City Engineer to make recommendations on further drainage improvements and road
grading
3) Request the Public Works Director to make recommendations on further drainage improvements and
road grading
Recommendation: Given the undulating terrain and the varying cant to the road surface, an evaluation and
recommendation by the engineer would serve as a better basis for decision and assessing the cost of any
recommended work.
Neil Soltis
From:
Neil Soltis <n.soltis@ci.scandia.mn.us>
Sent:
Monday, March 7, 2016 8:50 AM
To:
'Neil Soltis'
Subject:
FW: Pilar Rd.
From: Mayor Randall Simonson [mailto:r.simonson@ci.scandia.mn.us]
Sent: Wednesday, February 10, 2016 8:31 AM
To:'Neil Soltis'
<n.soltis@ci.scandia.mn.us<mailto:n.soltis@ci.scandia.mn.us>>; Dir P.W. Dave Williams
<d.williams@ci.scandia.mn.us<mailto:d.williams@ci.scandia.mn.us>>
Subject: FW: Pilar Rd.
FYI
From: RAY GRUNZINGER [mailto:rgrunzinger@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, February 9, 2016 8:58 PM
To: d. lee @ci.scandia.us<mailto:d. lee @ci.scandia.us>;
bhegland@ci.scandia.mn.us<mailto:bhegland@ci.scandia.mn.us>;
j.sneider@ci.scandia.mn.us<mailto:j.sneider@ci.scandia.mn.us>;
c.ness@ci.scandia.mn.us<mailto:c.ness@ci.scandia.mn.us>;
r.simonson@ci.scandia.mn.us<mailto:r.simonson@ci.scandia.mn.us>
Subject: Pilar Rd.
We have lived at 22787 Penfield since July, 1978. Our house is located at
the corner of Penfield and Pilar Rd. In each of the winters we have lived
here we have observed evidence of at most 5 cars the entire winter that
have gone in the ditch. Most winters there has been none. .
In the Fall of 2015 the city of Scandia was told Pilar road needed
"improving". This seemed to be elimination of vegetation and trees.
Removal of dirt from our property. Mounding the road and inserting large
ditches on either side of the road.
Since these improvements many cars/trucks/buses have gone in the ditch.
After the first snowfall we counted five different location cars/trucks had gone off the road and we visually observed
two of these incidents.
At the intersection of Penfield and Pilar we have witnessed two cars, a garbage truck and yesterday February 8, 2016 a
school bus was sucked into the ditch. As observed the bus mishap occurred when it meet a city plow.
A city pick up with plow came along and they pulled the bus in the ditch from west of Penfield about 600 feet to the east
of Penfield. It was still in the ditch tilting at about 30 degrees until a tow truck came and winched it out of the ditch.
In the 39 years we have lived here no one has ever gone into the ditch at the intersection of Penfield and Pilar until this
year after the "improvements".
The city council allowed this to happen so I would suggest it address this problem by taking the following steps.
First don't allow the city engineer/road supervisor/city workers who did this to Pilar to do any future work on Filar Rd.
Rescind any amendment, bill or ordinance which allows decisions to be made regarding any so called improvements,
upgrades, or fixing a problem by the existing regime.
Make it a city policy if a city plow or grader meets a car/bus/truck on Pilar they back up allowing the vehicle to pass
without pushing it in the ditch.
The mound or grade at the center of the road be reduced.
The ditches be filled in so at lest buses can't tilt 30 degrees.
Just to document that this situation exists. On the north side of the
curve between 15359 Pilar and 15400 Pilar is a marsh. One of the
neighborhood girls while in high school 26 years ago drove to close to the
edge and the car tilted at 180 degrees in a vertical position. Over the
years we have made sure vegetation was growing there so if someone decided to hit that side of the road the car would
be stopped and not roll into the
marsh. It has worked. About four years ago the postman decided to backup
right there and his car was stopped by the vegetation and only slide off the road and did not roll into the marsh.
In the wisdom of the city council that vegetation was removed in the
"improvements". The vegetation served a real purpose and was removed with
no acknowledgement that this spot without the vegetation to stop a car produced a really dangerous situation.
Under the supervision of the Scandia City Council the aesthetic value of Pilar has been greatly diminished and the road is
now more treacherous than it was. Instead of making a study of the unique and different drainage patterns, gradient
variations, and the unique natural aspects of Pilar, the road "improvements" proceeded in a pedestrian fashion that in
no way meet the needs of this unique road.
One of the taxpayers of this community.
Laura Grunzinger