A $900,000 project to add a left-turn lane on Sixth Street where it intersects with Iowa Street is moving forward.
Lawrence city commissioners at their Tuesday evening meeting unanimously agreed to seek proposals from engineers to design the project, which would add a turn lane for westbound motorists on Sixth Street.
The city originally had applied for a state grant to fund much of the project, but the city did not win the grant. City engineers, though, recommended that the city proceed with the project anyway. The turn lane is expected to reduce the number of accidents at the intersection and cut down the wait time to make a left turn by about a minute.
Design work on the project will begin in 2012. Construction is expected in the summer of 2013.
Comments
conservative 5 years, 7 months ago
To make that intersection better for traffic going both ways on 6th they really should add a right turn lane onto Iowa from Eastbound 6th also.
Jake Esau 5 years, 7 months ago
Right turns don't block traffic nearly as much as left turns do. Because of the way that road is built up on a hill, it's not just as simple as laying some asphalt to add a new lane (hence almost $1 million for the project just for left turn lane).
Bob Forer 5 years, 7 months ago
A left hand turn lane is much needed. Sixth street creates quite a bottleneck during rush hour. Not a whole lot of shoulder in the area, so an additional lane is going to be a tight squeeze.
gccs14r 5 years, 7 months ago
Either put in a ramp west of Iowa that loops down to the right to join Iowa, or do as others have proposed and use the existing ramp from WB 6th to NB McDonald, with a roundabout between Bluffs and Rockledge to loop traffic back to the south.
JayhawkFan1985 5 years, 7 months ago
What we need are bike lanes on 6th Street, not more lanes dedicated to cars. Lawrence is only about 6 miles across and based on that size, we should be able to ride a bike from one side of town to the other. Unfortunately, it just is not safe to cross streets like Iowa and 23rd on bike. Also, most streets west of Iowa are dead end streets...the legacy of Bob Billings and his Alvamar developments. It is ironic that one of the very few "through" streets on the westside is now named after him. I do think he built a quality product for it's day, but it is a tremendous problem today for walking, biking and transit in town. Were supposed to be a progressive town. Let's spend the money on on-street bike lanes on 6th from k10/slt east to city hall.
iron_outlaw 5 years, 7 months ago
I drive through that intersection everyday. I've never had a problem with wait times or even seen a wreck there. 900,000 seems like a lot of money to save a minute of time for someone. I say Lawrence drivers just start doing the posted speed limit instead of 30 in a 45. That would save more then a minute of my time.
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