Public gets look at intersection plan
The juncture of Broadway, Pine Grove Avenue, Grand Street and Prince Street in Midtown is to be reconfigured.
KINGSTON, N.Y. » A preliminary plan to realign a problematic Midtown intersection near the YMCA calls for Grand Street to end at a reconfigured Prince Street, which would align with Pine Grove Avenue on the other side of Broadway.
“We are looking to turn Grand Street into a T intersection with Prince Street and have Prince Street lined up directly across [Broadway] from Pine Grove Avenue,” Robert Jobin, a project engineer with consultant Greenman-Pedersen Inc., said during an online information session Wednesday. “This design will shorten up the Broadway intersection and make it a conventional four-light intersection, reducing the conflict points for vehicles, bicyclists and pedestrians.”
The city plans to use a $750,000 state Department of Transportation grant to realign the area where Broadway, Pine Grove Avenue and Grand Street, along with nearby Prince Street, come together. Currently, motorists crossing Broadway from either Pine Grove Avenue or Grand Street must turn slightly because the two streets are not directly across from each other.
Jobin said the project is being designed to ensure all drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists can get through the intersection safely. He also said the project will coincide with the city’s Broadway Streetscape project, which seeks to improve the Midtown corridor between St. James and Grand streets. Part of the coordination will be the connection of bike paths along Broadway with the Empire State Trail, a portion of which runs along Prince Street, Jobin said.
And by making changes to the intersection, some “green space” will be developed that can be transformed into something useful for the city, Jobin said.
Kristen Wilson, director of the city’s Office of Grants Management, said the state funding cannot be used for the development of the green space, so that would be a separate project. She said conceptual designs for the use of two such areas, which were discussed during Wednesday’s session, were meant to spark conversation about what the public would like to create there.
Wilson said the city will take comments about the preliminary design for the intersection realignment through July 24 but will continue to accept comments on the potential uses of the green space until a date still to be determined.
Comments can be made on the city’s website at engagekingston.com/broadwaygrandintersection.
Part of the green space would be created on the property where the former Planet Wings restaurant currently stands. That building is to be demolished soon, Jobin said, adding that the realigned intersection will go through the area where a corner of the structure is now.
Wilson said the greenspace does not need to be a park. She also said the public could decide whether the city should pay tribute to the former Kingston Post Office that formerly occupied the space.
The old post office, a Beaux Arts structure built from 1904 to 1908, stood at the site until its demolition in 1969-70, an action that drew the scorn of preservationists and many city residents. A Jack-in-theBox fast-food restaurant was built on the site soon after, and was followed by a string of fast-food restaurants and an ice cream shop before Planet Wings opened in 1996. Planet Wings closed in early 2017, and the city took ownership of the site in mid-2019.
Jobin said the realigned intersection is to feature new signs, bicycle signals, and colored paint to help identify conflict areas between bicyclists and drivers. It also is to feature new lighting to match what is being installed as part of the Streetscape project, he said.
The parking lot at Broadway and Grand Street is to be shifted and reconfigured to move the entrance away from the intersection and create another greenspace area, Jobin said. He said there also will be some additional parking spaces created on Broadway and Prince Street.
Jobin said the consultants will continue the design process once public, and the goal is for construction to begin in the spring of 2020 and be completed by the fall