MESA, AZ — For the past two years, Sabrina Miller-Castillo, who owns Babydoll Hair Salon, says she’s had some challenges with construction in front of her salon.
The City of Mesa says they've been working to make the area of Southern Avenue and Stapley Drive safer by adding a raised median, which is parallel to Babydoll Hair Salon.
“If you are going eastbound to try to get to us – there's a median in the way,” Miller-Castillo said. “We're now in the front of our building and business, you can no longer make a left-hand turn lane."
This week, the City of Mesa added a ‘No Left-Hand Turn’ and ‘No U-Turn’ traffic sign. The city also added yellow pavement markings. The city says this encourages drivers to turn on Doran instead.
Miller-Castillo says that's confusing her customers. “It's very intuitive that that's where you would need to turn, and now they have put a ‘No Left-Hand Turn’, to turn in here," she said.
Beyond the confusion, she says her staff has witnessed traffic crashes with the median in place.
“About three weeks ago, there was another ‘U-Turn’ accident where [he] actually slammed into the light pole past the sidewalk and easement into the gravel,” Miller-Castillo remembered.
“Now we're waiting for City of Mesa to put the light pole back on,” Miller-Castillo said.
She’s been in contact with the city about construction, crashes and signage.
The City of Mesa responded to ABC15’s request, detailing the history of this dangerous stretch of road.
They launched a 'Capital Improvement Project' at Stapley and Southern to minimize crashes.
The city tells ABC15, "The City of is Mesa mitigating the issue with multipronged initiatives and through collaboration with our Transportation Department, Police Department and Fire Department."
