Zooming in
Assistant Director of Public Works Stephen Hanuscin said traffic lights will be installed at the following intersections:
- Bell Boulevard and Aster Street, serving as the primary signalized entrance and exit into and out of the Bell District
- Gupton Way Drive and Park Street
- Vista Ridge Boulevard and Colonial Parkway
- Vista Ridge Boulevard and Golden Arrow
“There’s a tremendous amount of pedestrian and bicycle activity in that area because of the vicinity—you got three schools there plus the stadium,” he said.
Another project city officials have planned are improvements to the existing midblock crossing on Park Street, just to the west of Gupton, Hanuscin said.
The layout is a four-lane, bidirectional crossing on a 40 mph road, he said, which is no longer a recommended setup. Instead, city officials are looking at creating buffer spaces or pedestrian refuge areas, something similar to the crossing on Anderson Mill Road but on a smaller scale.
Crews will reduce the four-lane crossing to one lane at a time with flashing beacons to alert drivers when pedestrians are crossing.
The action taken
Council approved a $1.9 million change order to add the construction on the traffic signals and pedestrian crossing improvements to the contract for the New Hope Drive extension project, which is under construction and slated to wrap up this summer. No additional funding was necessary for this change order, Hanuscin said.
He said these projects were added to the New Hope Drive extension contract due to scheduling reasons and the need to get them done quickly.
Stay tuned
Officials are hoping to have the three signals near the schools constructed and fully operational before school resumes on Aug. 14, according to city documents. Likewise for the signal at Bell Boulevard, officials are looking for it to reach completion before the new library opens, which is slated to happen this fall.
A construction start date for the upcoming projects was not specified.
