The original plan to resurface and adjust the flow of traffic on Telly road has been altered.

Initially, the City of Picayune planned to install a dead end on Telly Road and direct the flow of traffic one way. Now the city plans to leave the connection to U.S. 11 intact but not use it during a monitoring period.

For the time being the city will monitor the traffic counts and flow from Memorial Boulevard onto Telly Road after it is opened again to get an idea of what is best for the flow of traffic, said City Manager Ed Pinero. Factors such as driver safety and traffic pressure on U.S. 11 will be taken into consideration during the monitoring period, he said. After the road is reopened, it will still be one way from Memorial Drive towards U.S. 11. At least during the monitoring period, motorists will have to turn onto Culpepper Street to get to U.S. 11. For now, the only change is the possibility of leaving access directly from Telly Road to U.S. 11, Pinero said.

“We’re in an analysis mode at this moment,” Pinero said. “There’s nothing written in stone at the moment.”

Pinero said that road workers have resurfaced Telly Road all the way to U.S. 11, dropping the original plan to make that section in to a dead end complete with green space. During the monitoring period at least, barricades will be used to restrict access to that section of Telly Road. Those barricades will force motorists to turn left or right on to Culpepper Street. Motorists can still access U.S. 11 if they turn left on to Culpepper Street, which will give them a safer 90 degree turn at its intersection with U.S. 11, Pinero said.

The idea is to prevent one of three different accident scenarios.

Public Works Director Chad Frierson said that the first scenario involves a motorist who approaches the intersection of Telly Road and U.S. 11. As that motorist approaches the intersection and sees there is too much traffic to make it onto U.S. 11 the motorist stops suddenly. This could be a problem if another motorist is following too closely behind and is also looking at the traffic on U.S. 11 instead of the motorist in front. When the motorist in front decides to stop suddenly and the motorist behind does not see the brake lights come on and a rear end collision could occur, Frierson said.

A second scenario would involve another car coming off of Seal Street onto U.S. 11 at the same time as a car from Telly Roads. Frierson said if the motorist pulling off of Telly Road onto U.S. 11 does not see the motorist coming off of Seal Street, then an accident could occur.

The final scenario involves a south bound vehicle on U.S. 11 turning onto Telly Road in front of a north bound vehicle on U.S. 11 while trying to beat the north bound vehicle.

Elimination of the intersection of Telly Road and U.S. 11 and turning Telly into a one way street will correct all three scenarios.

To accommodate the extra traffic on U.S. 11 that is caused from closing Telly Road, Pinero said the city has asked the Mississippi Department of Transportation to lengthen the light times at the intersection of U.S. 11 and Bruce Street and the intersection of U.S. 11 and Memorial Boulevard. The city also has requested MDOT to widen and add a turn lane in front of Winn Dixie at the intersection of Bruce Street and U.S. 11 to reduce congestion at that point, Pinero said.