Published: May 06, 2008 01:08 am            

CITY OF LOCKPORT: Lincoln Ave. study pitch is coming to a head

The long-delayed question of whether the City of Lockport should sign on with a Lincoln Avenue improvement project is coming to a head.

Fourth Ward Alderman Patrick Schrader is asking the Common Council to approve, with Niagara County, a study of the Lincoln Avenue/Summit Street corridor from State Road to Akron Road. He’ll also ask the Council to sign off on an agreement with New York state committing the city to a construction project.

After the resolutions appeared on the Council’s preliminary agenda late last week, City Hall was deluged with phone calls from upset residents in the Lincoln Avenue/Locust Street area.

Locust Street homeowner George Muscato has asked the Council to turn back the motions because, he said, “a study is not just a study. The work’s a done deal.”

Muscato has passed around copies of an initial project proposal for Lincoln-Summit Corridor improvements that suggests taking land along Lincoln to add left turn lanes at congested intersections and realigning the Lincoln/Locust intersections.

Schrader argues Muscato is reading too much into the roughly two-year-old proposal and the exact work needed to unclog Lincoln’s intersections won’t be known until traffic patterns are studied. That’s his point in seeking the study, he says.

A May 1 confidential memorandum to aldermen from City Attorney John J. Ottaviano warns them Muscato is correct, though. If they OK the study, they’re also, by extension, approving whatever physical reconstruction of Lincoln and cross streets is called for in that study.

Even if the remedy involves unpopular acts — such as the taking of land to widen or realign streets — there’s no opting out of it, the memo said. By spending federal/state money on the study, the city is committing itself, legally, to take whatever prescription is written.

“By passing these resolutions, you are agreeing to complete the entire project from study to construction,” Ottaviano wrote. “This is not just a study. It involves studying the area, determining what needs to be done, taking the land that is needed and constructing the road. Incidentally, the (state transportation department) reviews the study and decides what is the best way to alleviate the traffic problem, not the mayor, Common Council or the residents in the proposed area.”

The project proposal plainly blames the Route 93 bypass, accessed from Lincoln/Summit Street, for Lincoln Avenue’s congested state. The City of Lockport’s master plan previously speculated much traffic at the city’s southern edge really is overflow from the congested South Transit corridor.

Muscato argues widening or otherwise making Lincoln Avenue more traffic-friendly will only increase the vehicle count on it, and if Lincoln/Locust intersections were realigned to be more turn-friendly, walkers to and from Lockport High School would be at risk. He thinks the city should press the county and state to deal with bypass, Transit and Robinson congestion issues, instead.

“This whole thing is about other people’s failures — the failure to connect Davison Road with Robinson, the failure to connect the bypass with Shimer Drive (west of Home Depot plaza),” Muscato said. “They should not use city streets to solve problems created outside the city.”

The origins of the problem aren’t the issue, Schrader fires back. Traffic congestion exists, especially at Lincoln/Locust and Lincoln/Beattie, and it needs to be addressed.

“(Muscato) is saying, ‘make the cars go away.’ Well, that’s childish,” Schrader said. “There is no town problem or city problem; it’s a problem, period. The street needs to be looked at, and the intersections widened because they’re all screwed up. ... If I lived on Lincoln Avenue, I’d still do this. It’s what’s right for the Fourth Ward and for the City of Lockport.”

The terms of the city-state deal call for the city to pay for the Lincoln/Summit corridor study, engineering and design upfront, at a cost estimated last year at $655,000, and be reimbursed if it agrees to the construction.

The initial project proposal estimated a study-and-construction cost of $4.14 million, $130,000 of which ultimately would be the city’s share to pay.

Contact reporter Joyce Miles at 439-9222, ext. 6245.

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.