An aerial view shows Kasold Drive looking northwest as it elbows near the intersection Harvard Road.

Future construction plans for Kasold Drive include a potential “road diet” for the street, which hasn’t seen a significant increase in traffic over the past two decades, city engineers say.

Currently there are two main options for a Kasold Drive construction project slated to begin sometime next year, said Lawrence City Engineer David Cronin. The work involves a complete overhaul of the road stretching from Eighth Street south to 14th Street.

“The two options are to reconstruct the street as we have typically done with a five-lane section,” Cronin said. “Another option, what we’re calling the ‘Complete Street Option,’ reduces the five lanes to three, including the center turn lane.”

The Complete Street option, reducing traffic from two lanes traveling in each direction to one lane for each direction, is the option city engineers are recommending to city commissioners, Cronin said. Because that option would require less resources and qualify for several federal safety grants, the city would save around $1 million with that choice, he added.

Before any action can be taken or before any ground can be broken, planners need direction from the city, Cronin said. While the issue is due to be addressed by city commissioners, it did not appear on the agenda for their Aug. 25 meeting.

If commissioners choose to keep the road structured as it is, city engineers would recommend installing a traffic signal at the intersection of Harvard and Kasold roads, Cronin said. The Complete Street Option would involve installing a roundabout at that same intersection.

Both options would include a bike lane for cyclists, said Chris Tilden, director of Community Health at the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department. However, the Complete Street Option would allow more room for cyclists.

“There will be a several-foot-wide buffer between the lane of traffic and the bike lane,” he said. “Generally we have a stripe but not a wider buffer. It certainly creates greater comfort among the cyclists, in particular the people who are less experienced.

The Complete Street Option would also make travel safer for pedestrians along the stretch, Cronin said.

“There’s a school crossing at the intersection of Kasold and Harvard, and crossing the street with five lanes and a signal, you’re crossing 65 feet of pavement,” he said. “With the Complete Street Option you’re crossing about 24 feet total and you have a median. We feel that’s a safer option at that intersection.”

While the Complete Street Option would likely make that stretch of Kasold Drive safer, both Cronin and Tilden said they’ve heard concerns about the lane reductions negatively affecting travel times or access for emergency vehicles such as fire trucks or ambulances.

Cronin said with current and future traffic projections, the potential lane reductions should neither increase travel times nor impede any emergency responders.

The roundabout will keep traffic moving at a steady pace, and the center turn lane will provide enough extra space for any emergency vehicle that may need to cross the stretch in a hurry, he said.

Tilden also said that his research has shown similar lane reductions in cities across the country drastically cut down the number of crashes. Those reductions have been particularly effective for roadways like Kasold Drive with an average daily volume of less than 25,000 cars.

Those statistics could mean a much-needed improvement for the intersection of Kasold and Harvard roads, which Tilden called dangerous.

“It doesn’t really affect average traffic flow, but it does reduce the excessive speeders along the roadways,” he said. “Most studies have shown a pretty significant reduction of crashes, pretty close to 50 percent.”

Amanda Albrecht, manager at Tad’s Pizzeria, 1410 Kasold Drive, said she’s not concerned about a lane reduction negatively affecting the business as much as the construction itself.

“We have kind of limited entrances to this little strip mall,” Albrecht said. “So I think the act of construction might be more of a hindrance than the actual reduction.”

Another alternative to reducing the number of lanes on the road might be to reduce the speed limits, Albrecht added.

Cronin said until commissioners give planners further direction on which option to choose, it’s not clear how long the construction could take.

If the project begins early enough in 2016 it’s feasible to complete the work entirely in that year, he said. Otherwise it’s possible to split the construction between 2016 and 2017.

More information on the project can be found online at www.kasolddrive.com.