A driver prepares to turn south off Ninth Street onto Emery Road from the turn lane Friday, Jan. 22, 2016.

A new city report shows fewer overall traffic collisions have occurred in a stretch of Ninth Street in the year after it was redesigned from four lanes to three — a project that’s been touted as a success in recent talks about reducing lanes along Kasold Drive.

In their analysis, city staff found there had been a reduction in crashes — about 17 percent — in the year after the Ninth Street project was complete, compared with the average of the previous three years. There was an average of 29 crashes per year from September 2011 through September 2014, and there were 24 from September 2014 to September 2015.

“It was a noticeable difference, but obviously they are still occurring occasionally,” said City Engineer Dave Cronin. “I’m pleased to see the reduction. I think that was a successful project from the standpoint that we have seen that.”

City analysis of traffic collisions along Ninth Street from Emery Road to Mississippi Street. The city compared the number of crashes in the year after the street was reduced to three lanes to the average of the previous three years.

Because of higher-than-average crashes in the corridor, Ninth Street was re-striped from four to three lanes from Mississippi Street to Emery Road in 2014. There’s currently one lane in each direction with a center turn lane and bicycle lanes.

The project, which was debated at the time because it narrowed the lanes, was paid for through the Highway Safety Improvement Program from the Kansas Department of Transportation, as well as about $50,000 in city funds.

According to the recent report, the intersections that prompted the project were Ninth Street and Emery Road and Ninth and Michigan Street. There had been concern that traffic collisions were caused when drivers making left turns from Ninth onto Emery Road and Michigan Street had to stop in a through lane and were struck by other vehicles.

The report shows a decrease in crashes on Michigan Street from a high of eight in 2013 to one crash the year after the project’s completion. But the number of collisions at Ninth and Emery increased by one — from seven crashes each in the three years prior to the re-striping to eight from 2014 to 2015.

The occasional crashes are consistent everywhere, Cronin said. “You can’t solve every problem.”

Cronin said the city would continue to monitor crashes along the corridor and look at ways to improve Ninth Street, as it does with other intersections.

At a town hall meeting in September about proposed plans for Kasold Drive — a project that’s been contested by those who live along the thoroughfare — Cronin said the city needed to look into whether there was a crash reduction with the Ninth Street redo.

Though the projects and areas are different, Cronin said, Ninth Street has been brought up in the Kasold Drive conversation because of the proposed reduction in lanes.

One of two options presented for Kasold Drive reduces traffic from two lanes in each direction to one, with a center turn lane. The other option calls for four traffic lanes and a center turn lane.

City staff has recommended the three-lane option, saying it would require fewer resources and be eligible for federal safety grants.

Kasold Drive and Ninth Street have similar traffic volumes, Cronin said. Approximately 16,000 to 18,000 vehicles per day drive along that section of Ninth Street. Kasold Drive, from Sixth Street to Bob Billings Parkway — the section up for reconstruction — sees anywhere from 14,000 to 16,000 per day.

The city has hosted several public meetings since May about upcoming changes to the section of Kasold Drive.

City commissioners were scheduled to make a decision on the reconstruction just prior to former Mayor Jeremy Farmer’s resignation in August. The consideration was deferred and now appears on a list of future agenda items without a date for when it will be addressed.

It’s still uncertain when it will be considered, but Cronin said Thursday that it would be “probably soon, I suspect.”