Published: May 17, 2008 12:51 am            

CITY OF LOCKPORT: County still plans to reconstruct Lincoln Ave.

Niagara County will press on with its plans to reconstruct heavily traveled Lincoln Avenue from Beattie Avenue east to Akron Road.

The City of Lockport last week pulled out of its part of a proposed, federally funded Summit Street/Lincoln Avenue corridor improvement project.

The city’s disengagement won’t affect the county’s plans to take care of its share of the corridor, county Deputy Public Works Commissioner Rick Eakin said this week.

“We’ve got a project, regardless. The road is in rough shape,” he said. “When it’s 80 percent funded, you take advantage of the money while it’s there.”

The county and city got the corridor work onto the region’s slow-moving federal Transportation Improvement Project list years ago. At this point, Eakin said, the county is eyeing a $4.2 million project mainly emphasizing complete road replacement between Beattie and Akron and, where traffic pattern studies suggest they’re needed, signal modification, new devices or additions to improve traffic flow.

“It’s more of a road condition issue than a traffic issue on our end. While we’re working on the road, we’ll see what improvements are warranted,” he said.

It seems likely a traffic pattern count will show left-turn lanes should be added at the Lincoln/Davison Road intersection, Eakin said. As for improvement of the busy four-way stop at Lincoln and Akron Road, he can’t venture a guess. There isn’t room for a traffic circle and it’s not clear whether adding a signal light would help or hurt flow there.

The city’s uncertainty about signing on for a project appears to have set back work about one to two years. According to Eakin, the city agreed to be the lead agency on the project and received a work contract with New York state ready for signing in January 2007. The projection, at that time, was for contractor bidding this year and physical work in 2009-10.

Council action was delayed a year ago by the question of where the city would come up with $650,000 for a traffic study and project design; the terms required the city to pay the cost upfront, then receive reimbursement.

When 4th Ward Alderman Pat Schrader, whose ward includes Lincoln Avenue in the city, finally attempted to reintroduce the contract package for Council approval in late March, construction-leery constituents mounted a campaign to get the city to dump it. Mayor Michael Tucker confirmed last week the city will not participate.

Now the county is changing the project scope and getting itself designated the lead agency on Lincoln reconstruction. The paperwork should be filed next week, Eakin said. The new timetable projects: traffic- and-turn counting this fall; design work lasting eight to 12 months afterward; bidding out the construction in early 2010; and physical work in 2012.

        

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