The Columbian Way paving and improvement project that we wrote about last November will begin next Wednesday, May 19. The construction will begin with sidewalk replacement on the north side of Columbian Way between Beacon Avenue South and the VA Hospital.
The project will alter Columbian Way between Beacon and 15th Avenue South to have one travel lane in each direction with a new center left turn lane, along with new sidewalks, street trees, bike lanes, and other improvements.
There will be parking and lane restrictions in the area during the project, though one traffic lane in each direction will remain open at all times. The project is expected to be completed in September. For further information, see the project website.
While this is a good project (IMHO), the City has not done any due diligence on the impact of this to the surrounding neighborhoods.
How much traffic will redirect in to the neighbor? They have no idea, since they never did a beginning traffic count. This count was promised in a meeting that I had with the city in January.
Tsk tsk DOT.