It has become almost a summer ritual in Lawrence: Portions of Iowa Street reduced to one lane. This summer will be no different.

City commissioners have approved plans for portions of Iowa Street to be reduced to one lane in each direction to accommodate two projects. The first is the previously announced renovation to the Irving Hill Road overpass. As we previously reported, the bridge will get an updating that includes a new KU blue paint job and KU signs.

That work will take place from May 18 through the end of July. Construction crews plan to close one lane in each direction while bridge work is occurring overhead. But the university has agreed to a city suggestion that the lane closures occur only from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., which is a plan the city used when the Sixth and Iowa intersection was under construction last summer. The university also has committed to keeping all lanes open during holidays and other dates known to have heavy traffic. The lane closures will apply to a relatively short section of Iowa Street near the bridge.

The second project is an extensive repaving of portions of Iowa Street. The $800,000 project will repave sections from Sixth Street to Harvard Road and from Irving Hill Road to 21st Street. Basically, the city is planning to repave areas that are just north and south of the concrete pavement that was installed as part of the major Iowa Street rebuilding two years ago. Just to be clear, the city isn’t needing to repave any of the work that was done in 2013.

The project is expected to reduce traffic to one lane in each direction at various times. City officials are promising to coordinate their lane closures with the lane closures for the bridge project. The repaving work is expected to last from May to August.

When this project is completed, the city notes, the entire stretch of Iowa Street from Sixth to 23rd streets will have been improved since 2013. Theoretically that should mean that the section of Iowa Street should be relatively free from construction projects for the next several years.

In other news and notes:

• How is this for a theory: A roundabout on Bob Billings Parkway. Calm down and put your plans for a hover car away for a moment. It certainly isn’t a done deal that a roundabout is coming to Bob Billings Parkway, but a discussion may be in the making.

A group of 16 neighborhoods have banded together to create a coalition to study possible improvements to Bob Billings Parkway. Residents along the street are concerned about the increased traffic that is sure to come once the new South Lawrence Trafficway and Bob Billings Parkway interchange opens by early 2016.

Residents note that Bob Billings Parkway really isn’t a parkway in the sense of Clinton Parkway, which has limited intersections, curb cuts and frontage roads to help move traffic in the area. Bob Billings — some remember when it used to be called 15th Street — is a pretty traditional four-lane street.

The group of residents delivered a report to city commissioners Tuesday that made three recommendations, and at least one of them involves the possibility of roundabouts. The report calls for “active and passive measures to decrease vehicular speed, e.g. roundabouts and traffic signals.” The report also mentions the possibility of narrowing the lanes of traffic to reduce speeds.

The report also recommends improved access at numerous residential intersections, including measures such as improved sight lines. Also recommended are more safe crossing areas, including “above or below grade crosswalks, signalized crosswalks, sidewalks on both sides of Bob Billings Parkway, and additional bike lanes.

As I noted earlier, it is tough to know what will come of these suggestions. But city commissioners have said they are serious about looking at ways to mitigate negative consequences from the increased traffic that is likely on Bob Billings Parkway.

The first things motorists will notice on the road, however, are rebuilding of portions of the pavement between Foxfire Drive and Wakarusa Drive and installation of a new traffic signal at Bob Billings Parkway and George Williams Way. Bids for both those projects came in slightly below engineers’ estimates, so city officials have given the green light for the projects to proceed this summer. Work is expected to last until late 2015 or early 2016.

Because of technical difficulties, Town Talk is in a slightly different format today. Find previous posts at LJWorld.com/towntalk.