Lack of protected left-turn from Timbergate Drive has drivers frustrated

The intersection of Timbergate Drive and S Staples Streets is just one of two intersections in the area between Yorktown Blvd and McArdle Road without a protected left-hand turn.

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Delores Jones visits Crunch Fitness on S Staples Street and lives nearby. She said the lack of a protected turn makes it difficult to drive back onto S Staples Street.
"When I leave Crunch and turn on Timbergate, and want to make a left-hand turn on Staples, I can’t because there is no protected left or right turn signal," Jones said.

Making a regular turn seems like a lifetime.
"So I either sit at the light for 3 or 4 changes, and take a chance I won’t get hit, or I go straight across Timbergate and turn into a business and comeback on Timbergate and make a right on Staples," Jones said.

She also added that this isn’t just a time inconvenience either.
"One time I tried to make a left-turn and I almost got hit. Because there's oncoming cars on Timbergate," Jones said.

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In a statement, Corpus Christi Public Works said there are plans to add this left-hand turn to improve operations at that intersection. When asked why the protected turn wasn’t put in prior to the opening of Crunch Fitness, the city said, “Consideration of traffic impacts may not have been required during development. Our only other opportunities to address improvements would be under a bond or in-house maintenance projects. Both require planning and funding.”

While the city does not have an exact date to put in the protected left, city leaders say it will be sometime in the upcoming year.