New Intersection to Greet Drivers After Fairchild Bridge Opens
Crain Avenue's intersection with North Water and Lake streets redesigned to curb traffic flow
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A very different Crain Avenue will greet drivers turning off the new Fairchild Avenue Bridge when it opens to traffic this morning.
Crain Avenue's intersection with Lake and North Water streets was redesigned as part of the bridge project to try and cut down on the number of drivers cutting through the Crain Avenue neighborhoods from S.R. 43 on their way to Kent State University and the eastern side of Kent.
Kent City Engineer Jim Bowling said between 10,000 and 11,000 cars drive through the area on an average day.
"One of the goals determined by the city in the planning stages of the project was to try to protect and preserve the residential area that’s in Crain Avenue from Water Street to S.R. 59," Bowling said.
Officially, the intersection won't open until Monday.
The intersection and its streetscape was redesigned to make Crain Avenue look more like a subdivision or neighborhood with no outlet. Curbs and a new monument identifying the neighborhood help give drivers that iimpression.
Bowling said the new bridge's orientation reflats that goal. The new bridge lands a few hundred feet south of Crain Avenue, whereas the old bridge directs traffic directly onto Crain Avenue.
"We wanted to give the impression to those who are traveling through town that this is the entrance to a neighborhood .. to let them know this isn’t a place for through traffic," Bowling said.
The new intersection, along with North Water Street and Lake Street, will reopen with the new bridge. The old Crain Avenue Bridge will close permanently to traffic today as workers prepare for its demolition.
Bowling said he's hopeful the new intersection, combined with signs directing people towards campus via S.R. 59, will reduce traffic on Crain Avenue.
"I think those who used the route during the construction will realize how quick and easy it is to drive down S.R. 59 from S.R. 43," he said. "I believe that residential monument area will at least detract a few people from thinking that it’s a through route."
Diane Stresing
10:17 am on Thursday, October 27, 2011
Eager to see how this works -- would love to reduce the thru-to-town traffic in this neighborhood.
Pat
1:49 pm on Thursday, October 27, 2011
Why is the city advising drivers to take Main St instead of Haymaker is beyond me. Haymaker is the driect route to the university and elsewhere. I can't believe the width of the sidewalks on the bridge!!! With the width of the sidewalks they could have had 2 lanes going east over the bridge instead of one lane. The city has never been to bright in their plannings anyway!
Are they going to leave the dip in the road or flatten it out to make it even with Mantua St???
Kasha Legeza
2:33 pm on Thursday, October 27, 2011
And those of us living along Crain Avenue are incredibly grateful for the city's efforts to help reduce traffic on a road not designed for the volume it receives! There are many of us hoping this works. But if it doesn't, we hope the city will place more stop signs along Crain to slow down all the speeders.
Barbara Myers
5:01 pm on Thursday, October 27, 2011
I grew up in Kent and visit there every summer/fall, and I've watched the new bridge being built, wondering how this is going to improve traffic flow. Anyone coming from North Mantua St. or Fairchild Avenue, headed for the university, would have to be crazy to use the new bridge, rather than heading north on Mantua to Haymaker.
Commuters are no longer welcome on Crain Avenue, so they must make a right turn, after they cross the new bridge, onto Water Street, then proceed to the square, hoping that there will be no trucks blocking the street by the mill. Good luck to anyone trying to make a left turn onto Main from Water or crossing the intersection, staying on Water. Only a few will make it through with only one change of the light. How much thought was given to this new arrangement? And a monument at Crain?