Goodnight proposes ‘friendly’ downtown infrastructure plan

Posted: Wednesday, September 16, 2009 10:25 am

By Peter Adelsen padelsen@kokomoperspective.com | 0 comments

Driving through downtown may be a bit faster in the future if the city council goes along with a proposed plan. Mayor Greg Goodnight is proposing eliminating most traffic signals, one-way streets, and improving the Howard County courthouse square as a part of his infrastructure plan he introduced Friday at the Chamber of Commerce.

After the city looked at downtown traffic studies over the past years, Goodnight has proposed some changes that could help downtown rejuvenate. His plan is to eliminate all internal traffic signals between Washington, Superior, Jefferson streets and Apperson Way. Stop signs will replace the signals at these intersections. The signals along the border streets will not be removed.

"By pulling those traffic lights out and putting in stop signs about a third of those you will have improved time for everyone by not waiting as long for the light to turn," he said. "About a third are about the exact same in time and about a third you may have a second or two where the average time at that intersection may decrease."

The removed posts and signals would be removed to storage near the water treatment facility, he said, so if in the future they may be needed again for other projects, instead of purchasing new posts and signals.

The cost of pulling the polls out and replacing them with stop signs would be about $60,000, he said.

The one-way streets of Sycamore and Walnut streets will become two-way, he said. For signal modification at Washington and Sycamore streets, it would cost about $100,000 since the state is not interested in partnering with the city, he said.

The area around the courthouse square will also see drastic changes with the elimination of parking meters to instead strongly enforce the two-hour parking rule and install enhanced handicap curb ramps. The meters would be removed only around the courthouse. The cost would be around $6,500 for the removal and sign modification for the parking, he said.

The mayor also would like the courthouse square to be more safer and pedestrian friendly.

"Along Sycamore and Walnut, since the courthouse block is inset because of parking these are the longest paths for people to cross the street," Goodnight said. "The idea is to put bump outs, or basically curb extensions for the sidewalks, so the people can get across when they become two-way streets so it is safer for people to walk."

The plan is to extend these bump outs 8 or 10 feet and put a flower bed or something to protect people while they stand on these street corners, he said.

The cost for the bump outs would be about $90,000 because of poll removal and sewer drains, he said.

Along with the cost of all of the changes, there are also cost savings.

Through removing the 11 signals, the city would save $16,500 in annual signal maintenance cost. It would also save $1,000 a year in electricity cost at each signal and would save $15,500 a year in emergency call-outs for when a signal may malfunction.

As it stands now, downtown businesses are in favor of the mayor's plan. The only question by the business owners was how the parking would be enforced.

The city's plan is to chalk the tire of a vehicle when it exceeds the two-hour limit and begin to give tickets at $15 a piece for every violation.

In the future, the city may look into another phase of the project by allowing two-way traffic on Main and Union streets. Currently, these streets would have too many traffic signals to deal with, city engineer Carey Stranahan said.

"This could be the next step once we get the first phase done," Stranahan said. "Right now it would take more resources than what we have to do that right now."

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