25th and Dayton St. had become too dangerous. Drivers on Dayton St. were not seeing their stop sign, and drivers on 25th were stopping for signs that were not there. There were several confusing interactions between drivers at this intersection, and of course, many accidents as well. Mohamed Mouaddine, owner of Amina Auto Repair and Services, has seen several of these accidents. “We do body work, so it’s good for us,” said Mohamed. “But, unfortunately, the intersection was also putting our clients at risk. And the constant crashing sound and police presence was really distracting to our employees.” The City of Aurora realized something needed to be done. “We had several complaints about the intersection,” said City of Aurora traffic engineer Kyle Hardy. “The Stapleton neighborhood and traffic to and from Stanley Marketplace has increased the traffic at that intersection quite a bit in the last year. We monitored the traffic for a few weeks, put the data in to our fancy computer, and it spit out the perfect solution.” About a month ago, Aurora traffic engineers began implementing the solution. They began their hard work after dark. The project was going to be a big one, so they wanted to make sure it was done right. To begin, they dug deep holes on the corners of 25th and Dayton. This took hours of manpower as well as precise measurements and markings to make sure everything was done right. Then, more digging. This time they dug around the outsides of the existing stop signs. “We needed to make sure the holes were deep and wide enough so we could pull the stop signs out of the ground,” said Hardy. Hardy said the team used precision tools called “shovels.” Once the holes were deep and wide enough, they extracted the stop signs from the ground. “After hours of work, the whole team let out a big cheer,” said Hardy. “Pretty exciting stuff.” Finally, the team hauled the old signs across the street, and put them back in the ground at the new holes on the east-west facing 25th street. “In layman’s terms, we switched the stop signs,” said Hardy. “People on Dayton used to have to stop, and now they don’t. People on 25th, used to not have to stop, and now they do have to stop. It gets pretty complicated, I know, but that’s really the best I can explain it.” According to Mouaddine, accidents have not slowed down. “Nothing has changed. I guess I would have expected even more accidents, but that hasn’t happened. I’m really not sure why they didn’t just add in two stop signs and make it a four-way stop.” If you frequently drive that route, you are probably just as confused as Mouaddine. Drive safe, Stapletonians. Drive safe. ]]>