The stretch of Iowa Street from Harvard Road to Yale Road is in deplorable condition after a difficult winter. There is no question that city commissioners should accept the city engineer’s recommendation to move that stretch to the top of the city’s road maintenance priority list.

However, the maintenance priority is only part of the engineer’s recommendation. At their Tuesday meeting, city commissioners also will be asked to move forward on a more comprehensive solution for one of the city’s most traveled and most disreputable streets. We say it’s time to take some strong corrective action, including the addition of a left-turn lane between Harvard and Yale.

The scenarios examined by the engineer range from a $2 million project that would repave but not widen the street to a $5 million project that would add the center turn lane and completely rebuild the street. Five million dollars is a lot of money, but the city should do this job right.

According to the engineer’s report, a mill and overlay project similar to what the $2 million option would provide was done on this road in 2006 and already is failing. The original pavement on this section of Iowa was built in 1952 and is beyond its expected lifetime. Doing a mill and overlay every four of five years is just throwing good money after bad.

Widening the street and adding a center turn lane would add about $500,000 to the project, but it’s a good investment. Residents of the neighborhood just east of Iowa have protested the center lane before because they fear the additional traffic it might bring into their neighborhood. Their concerns need to be addressed, and the engineer’s proposal includes public meetings about the change.

However, it seems unlikely that the additional traffic the neighborhood would experience would offset the safety benefits of the turn lane. During periods of heavy traffic, it still will be difficult for southbound traffic to make left turns and cut through the neighborhood. At least with a turn lane, traffic would not be backing up behind turning vehicles causing quick, risky lane-changing or perhaps pressuring the turning vehicle to dart through a too-small gap in northbound traffic.

The engineer’s proposal calls for considerable state and federal funding for the project which is part of U.S. Highway 59. About $900,000 would come from city funds, including about $500,000 from the city sales tax approved by voters last year.

This is exactly the kind of project voters hoped would be funded from that sales tax revenue. Iowa Street is a major entrance to Lawrence and Kansas University and its current condition is an embarrassment to the community. The city should do the necessary temporary fixes and then move forward on a long-term solution for this stretch of road.