SALSA IN THE STREETS
Intersections at Russell Street and Spring Street along with East Lampkin Street and Russell Street will be closed to through traffic to allow for roadway striping and crosswalk construction this weekend.
The intersection of Spring Street and Russell Street will be closed on Saturday, Sept. 23, between 6 a.m. to 5 p.m.
On Sunday, Sept. 24 between 6 a.m. and 5 p.m. the intersection of East Lampkin Street and Russell Street will be closed.
Businesses and residences adjacent to the closed areas will be provided with as much accessibility as possible.
“It's virtually impossible to do this installation of this type of product without closing the roadway,” city engineer Edward Kemp said. “Traffic cannot travel over it, or it will damage the product for a certain period of time after it's installed.”
These crosswalk and striping projects will continue throughout the city. The construction will start with these two intersections and will move east.
“We are trying to coordinate to schedule (the construction) to all occur on a weekend when traffic is lighter and obviously on away football game weekends to minimize disruption of the traffic pattern and impact to local businesses,” Kemp said.
Future intersections seeing closures will be Mill Street, Maxwell Street, Colonel Muldrow Avenue, Jarnigan Street, East Gillespie Street, Hogan Street and Green Street. All of the intersections will be on Russell Street.
“They are actually going to be decorative crosswalks that's going to be a brick pattern and they have to completely close the roadway with no traffic on it in order to do the installation,” Kemp said.
With the construction, barricades will block the streets from residents being able to pass through. Warning signage will be placed in advance of the construction locations.
Although inconvenient, Kemp encourages residents who are traveling in the area to find an alternate route to their destination.