New One-way Block in Fish Creek

This month, the Town of Gibraltar will close Spruce Street to southbound traffic in the block between Main Street/Highway 42 and Maple Street.

Spruce Street in downtown Fish Creek will become the Town of Gibraltar’s first one-way street – or at least one block of a street.

Motorists will no longer be able to travel south on the street to Main Street/Highway 42 once the new signage goes up this month.

The two lanes on Spruce from Maple Street to Main Street/Highway 42 will be used only for northbound traffic. North of Maple Street toward the dock and marina, two-way traffic will resume.

The traffic change came out of the Gibraltar Town Board’s Aug. 3 meeting, and safety concerns drove the decision. Motorists on Highway 42 aren’t required to stop in any direction, and line of sight is restricted coming south on Spruce Street.

“It’s primarily a seasonal issue, but it’s a bad issue,” said supervisor Bill Johnson. “We need to do something.”

Though the traffic issue may be worse during the tourist season, the traffic change will be permanent unless the board decides to revisit it.

“We thought this was the best recommendation, and if it doesn’t work, the town board can rescind it,” said Travis Thyssen, town administrator.

The town has been looking at making this move since 1998. 

“This was studied on two different occasions, with two different reports, and both of them recommended doing this,” Thyssen said.

Town staff also did their own unofficial study recently, observing traffic at the intersection for a couple of hours.

“Half had out-of-state license plates and created issues wondering what to do” at what can be a confusing intersection, Thyssen said.

Some who commented thought the town should better understand what would happen elsewhere, with motorists being forced to loop around via Main Street and Cottage Row. Town board chair Steve Sohns was one of those.

“If you close this, it leads to other issues in some places,” he said. 

Sohns said he’d be more inclined to favor the move if the board considered other measures, such as removing some parking spaces that created blind corners. He specifically suggested removing two spaces at the corner by the Hide Side Corner Store to allow for easier right turns from Main Street traffic heading south on Highway 42.

“I just feel you can’t just do this without doing some other things,” he said. 

Gibraltar Police Chief Ryan Roesch supported the one-way street.

“The way it is now, it’s a mess,” he said.

Thyssen said they had nothing to lose by trying it. The expense to the town would amount to about $2,000 in paint and signage.

“If you don’t try, you’re not going to know if a different solution exists,” he said. “If we keep it the same, we’ll maintain the same problems we currently have.”

The long conversation preceding the vote still didn’t convince everyone it was the right move: The measure passed 3-2, with Sohns and supervisor Brian Merkel dissenting. Merkel said during the discussion that boat trailers would have a hard time making the corner at Maple Street to get to the nearest boat launches.