Safety improvements are coming to the Slaughter Lane and Manchaca Road intersection in Southwest Austin after the city of Austin ranked it the sixth most dangerous intersection in the city Sept. 2.

The Austin Transportation Department ranked the most dangerous intersections based on the overall number crashes, the rate of crashes, the overall number of fatalities and injuries, and the rate of fatalities and injuries, ATD Managing Engineer Eric Bollich said.

At Slaughter and Manchaca, ATD plans to revise right-turn lanes, add raised medians on Manchaca north and south of the intersection and include dual left-turn lanes in every direction of the intersection, in total costing $1.5 million, Bollich said.

ATD counted 32 traffic collisions at the intersection in 2014 and an average of 25 collisions per year from 2012-14. By comparison, the most dangerous intersection in Austin, at Lamar Boulevard and Rundberg Lane, had 38 collisions in 2014 and an average of 41 collisions per year from 2012-14.

There have been two traffic fatalities at the Slaughter and Manchaca intersection since 2010—one on June 9, 2011, and another on July 31, 2015, according to Austin Police Department data.

Left turns and crashes

North of the traffic-heavy intersection, northbound Manchaca drivers attempt to make left turns into the H-E-B shopping center, crossing multiple lanes of southbound traffic, despite road signs indicating not to do so, Bollich said. Sometimes drivers turning left may not have a clear view of all the southbound traffic, and suddenly the driver’s vehicle collides with a moving vehicle, he said.

The same types of crashes happen to drivers turning left out of the H-E-B entrance to go northbound on Manchaca, Bollich said.

The concrete median north of Slaughter and Manchaca is intended to prevent left turns into or out of the Manchaca H-E-B entrance, and the dual left-turn lanes are to ease congestion at the intersection, Bollich said.

“We really feel that something physical [such as raised medians] on Manchaca Road would really prevent [left turns and crashes] from happening,” Bollich said.

Both concrete medians to be constructed will extend 400 feet north and south from the intersection, Bollich said.

ATD is in the early stages of designing the improvements, but staff has already worked on implementing temporary fixes for the short term, Bollich said.

On Oct. 1, the first day of the city’s 2015-16 fiscal year, temporary improvements were installed near Slaughter and Manchaca. A partnership among the city, the Texas Department of Transportation and H-E-B led to the installation of plastic yellow posts in the middle of Manchaca to prevent left turns at the H-E-B entrance, and yellow striping was added at the entrance to direct drivers to make right turns only onto Manchaca.

[polldaddy poll=9137997]H-E-B Public Affairs Manager Leticia Mendoza said the city and TxDOT approached the San Antonio-based grocer’s real estate team about the history of traffic collisions at Slaughter and Manchaca. When the city and TxDOT asked H-E-B to work with them, the company said it had to find a solution that works to ensure that people are safe.

“Our customer safety is our top priority … from the safety in our parking lots to the safety of the food that they consume,” Mendoza said.

A request for funding

Funding for Slaughter and Manchaca improvements came about after District 5 Council Member Ann Kitchen requested Sept. 1 that city staff determine how much it would cost to make improvements at Austin’s most dangerous intersections.

In making the request to city staff, Kitchen said she wanted to find immediate funding for some of the dangerous intersections during the FY 2015-16 budget process.

The funds were approved Sept. 10 as part of the FY 2015-16 budget. The improvements at Slaughter and Manchaca and four other intersections add up to $3.8 million.

Though the ATD ranked 25 dangerous intersections, five received funding Sept. 10.

Bollich said some of the ranked intersections already have improvement design work in progress, and some other intersections would need more substantial reconstruction and funding.

Prior to ATD’s rankings, Kitchen, who is also the chairwoman of the City Council Mobility Committee, had already heard about the Slaughter and Manchaca intersection being one of the most dangerous intersections, but she didn’t know how its rank compared with other intersections in Austin, Kitchen said.

“I didn’t do [the information request] with a specific intersection in mind,” Kitchen said. “I did it as the Mobility Committee chair, thinking of the whole city. But it did turn out that this one [Slaughter and Manchaca] in my district happened to be one of the worst.”

Businesses nearby

Owners and employees of several businesses near Slaughter and Manchaca said they were not surprised at the high ranking.

Misty Meggs, store manager of Discount Electronics on Manchaca, said because so many crashes have happened at the intersection, just watching traffic from inside the store causes fear.

“I don’t envy anybody who’s walking the sidewalk here,” Meggs said.

Meggs said she has also noticed a significant increase in traffic at the intersection during the three years she has been an Austinite.

Southwest Austin resident Shelley Delayne said she informally calls Slaughter and Manchaca “Manslaughter,” a mashup of the two roads’ names, because of the high number of crashes and the myriad problems. Delayne owns Orange Coworking, located in the same shopping center as the Slaughter and Manchaca H-E-B.

One concern Delayne has when driving near the intersection is that the traffic lights are synchronized so “horribly” that drivers take the chance and make a left turn because they have been waiting for an opening.

“The changes the city is going to make are, frankly, a bandage,” Delayne said. “The changes I read about, such as the median, may help, but they won’t solve the problem.”

More Slaughter hazards

Other intersections along Slaughter have also been zones for a high number of crashes.

In addition to ATD’s 10 most dangerous intersections list, Community Impact Newspaper filed an open records request with APD seeking data from the past five years regarding the number of crashes at major Slaughter intersections.

From 2010 to 2014, the APD Research and Planning Unit counted 57 crashes at the Manchaca Road intersection. Surpassing that intersection are the ones at South First Street, with 69 crashes, and I-35, with 89 crashes.

The segment of Slaughter eastbound from South First to I-35 borders the northern edge of Southpark Meadows, a large retail center.

North of Southpark Meadows, H-E-B is planning to build another grocery store near the Slaughter and I-35 intersectio, Mendoza said. H-E-B has worked with the city, TxDOT and the office of District 2 Council Member Delia Garza to ensure city requirements  and additional features “above and beyond” for safe entrances at the new store, she said.

Bollich said Slaughter intersections west of I-35 are close to each other. The distance between South Congress and the I-35 frontage road on Slaughter Lane is 500 feet, he said. West of South Congress is an entrance to Southpark Meadows, and west of the entrance is South First.

“There are a lot of conflict points, a lot of people trying to get to different places in the area,” Bollich said.