The bollard talk in downtown McMinnville refuses to die down. If anything, it just moved up the street.
Early Friday morning, yet another traffic incident occurred on Main Street involving bollards, only this time it happened at the end of E. Main Street where traffic flows onto Sparta Street. A 2006 Freightline with a 2025 Fontaine trailer lodged itself on the bollards at the intersection, causing a backup of traffic on E. Main Street as well as traffic trying to merge from the direction of Beersheba Highway.
The truck driver was able to get free from the bollard, but there was damage to the rig. That repair work was completed locally around 12:15 p.m. The driver declined an interview on the situation.
Bollard talk has progressed this week after the intersection of South Chancery Street and Main Street was changed in hopes of avoiding more occurrences of trucks getting lodged on bollards in front of Gibson Insurance.
Those changes in traffic flow - an addition of a second lane flowing on Chancery Street between Main Street and Colville Street - went into affect Monday. By Wednesday, another truck had gotten stuck on the same bollards.
Facebook post from the City of McMinnville - Government page
While the traffic notes have been posted and shared, along with lines being changed, it did little to eliminate the truck issues or change some driver’s natural instinct to pull into the middle of the lanes if moving through Chancery Street. Several social media photos have emerged this week of drivers continuing to form two lanes of traffic moving northbound on Chancery Street, which was the common way of navigating downtown until this week.
The Warren County Way was on the scene as repairs were made to the truck this morning.
