 Bicyclists ride past the project on the north side of Uintah Street between Walnut Street and Cooper Avenue. The project will widen the street by four feet to allow bike lanes (note the new and old curb). Westside Pioneer photo
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Contractor Blue Ridge Construction has 90 days to finish the job, but it shouldn't take that long said Mike Chaves, a senior civil engineer with City Engineering.
According to plans, the project will install sidewalk, curb and gutter and a bike lane along the north side of the four-lane arterial between Walnut Street and Mesa Road.
There currently is no sidewalk on the north side between Cooper and Mesa (and none on most of the south side in that area as well).
“It's a little scary,” said Jacob Arellano, a passerby who said he often walks that segment.
At Mesa, a drainage inlet will be replaced, so less water will sheet the intersection in rainstorms; and an eastbound right-turn lane will be built, Chaves said.
To make space for the bike lane between Walnut and Cooper, the city had to move the north edge of Uintah about four feet closer to the houses, he explained. The city owns the right of way there, and the homeowners were contacted, he added.
The project typically requires Uintah's rightmost westbound lane to be closed during work hours; however, to ease the impacts on westbound traffic, crews are generally starting early in the day and ending before the evening rush hour, Chaves said.
The project's $375,000 expense is being covered with Community Develop-ment Block Grant (CDBG) funds. Coming from the federal government, the funds are earmarked for use in lower-income areas such as the Westside Neighborhood Strategy Area, of which Uintah is at the northern edge.
The project is the first phase of a city plan to improve traffic flow and safety along the Uintah corridor from Walnut to 30th Street. The city held a well-attended public meeting on corridor-improvement concepts last summer.
In a June interview, Chaves had speculated that a follow-up public meeting would occur this summer. However, he said this week that engineers are working on new design ideas for the corridor, which won't be ready to show the public until October.
Westside Pioneer article