Major Traffic Peeve to Be Addressed

Motorists trying to visit Costco, Best Buy, Rosewood Grill and other businesses in the Plaza at SouthPark may soon be able to get there without waiting in a line of traffic first.

The plaza owners are seeking to build an access road that would run behind the adjacent Royalton Road stores and connect with the driveway that serves the former Borders Plaza.

It would offer eastbound traffic another point of access that doesn't involve waiting in a long line of cars trying to turn left into the newer plaza.

Motorists have listed that area among their top traffic peeves in Strongsville.

"Obviously, we need another way to get in and out of there," City Engineer Ken Mikula said. "This is a great project."

The access road will run past Rosewood Grill and behind Panera and Trivs, connecting with the driveway that serves the Borders plaza.

That driveway lines up with an entrance to SouthPark Mall and is already regulated by a signal.

Mikula said the Plaza at SouthPark developers purchased easements for the access road when they built the shopping center.

The project will go before the city Planning Commission Thursday, Oct. 4.

The city responded to motorists' complaints this year by lengthening the left-turn lane for eastbound traffic into the Plaza at SouthPark, but it still often takes several signal cycles make the turn, backing up traffic on Royalton Road.

Mikula said the city is also working with the Ohio Department of Transportation on a study of traffic and signal timing in that area.