Fifth Ave. Bridge to test new designs
♦ The concepts will be tested on the bridge on March 19.
Plans to modify the Fifth Avenue Bridge as an attractive pedestrian friendly entrance to Rome’s River District will be refined during a design exercise on March 19.
City personnel will use a conceptual design by consultants to lay out potential parking and streetscape amenities on the bridge. The plan is to see how it might affect pedestrian and vehicular traffic throughout the day.
“Let’s see how everything flows,” said Commissioner Bill Collins.
He suggested that some city vehicles also could be staged to show how additional parking might be implemented on the bridge.
Instead of limiting vehicular traffic to the two center lanes, Commissioner Mark Cochran suggested that a design could shift two traffic lanes to one side or the other.
The two lanes on the other side could be used for a pedestrian and greenspace plaza.
Members of the city’s Publics Works and Redevelopment committees and the Downtown Development Authority will keep an eye on activity March 19, then get together to develop a final design for reutilization of the bridge.
The discussion came during a meeting of the Public Works Committee on Wednesday.
The committee also approved a request from Lavada Dillard to hold a special ceremony on Good Friday in a portion of Myrtle Hill Cemetery. Dillard also is seeking to have a memorial garden established to recognize the 901 Black people buried in that portion of the cemetery.
Cochran, who chairs the committee, said the idea of a marker would certainly be appropriate and indicated that the idea would be turned over to a new memorials committee of the city.
Also, Community Development Director Bekki Fox got a green light from the committee to continue sidewalk improvements along the Maple Street Corridor in East Rome.
Fox said the city needs to spend close to half a million dollars in Community Development Block Grant funds for the program by October, or risk losing the allocation. The work will take place from the intersection of Maple and East 12th streets and continue south for a yet unspecified distance.