What would streetscape look like?

Engineers describes new lights, wider sidewalks

A reconstruction of Broadway could make the street brighter, greener and safer for pedestrians, according to plans on file at City Hall.

Lorain City Council on Dec. 18 sent to committee the resolution of necessity for the Broadway streetscape.

The $3.6 million project would reconstruct Broadway with improved sidewalks, lighting, traffic flow and aesthetics from 10th Street north to West Erie Avenue.

The legislation was sent to Council’s Streets and Utilities Committee.

As of Dec. 22, there was no formal meeting set yet to discuss

the plans, but deliberations likely will begin in early 2018.

For 2018, the most current designs for the streetscape are black and white, overhead view plans showing different elements of the landscape architecture on Broadway from West Erie south past Ninth Street.

The 2018 design generally resembles the conceptual drawings first published in 2015 by thenSafety-Service Director Robert Fowler, said Lorain City Engineer Dale Vandersommen.

At that time, the project went on hold due to budget restraints and concerns about the costs by Broadway property owners.

The 2018 plans have lights and colored and textured walkways that are different from the 2015 drawings, Vandersommen said.

But the designs are similar enough that the 2015 renderings remain accurate for showing how Broadway could look, he said.

For other design elements, Vandersommen translated the blueprints to verbal descriptions.

The streetscape as planned now should brighten up Broadway.

“There will be 60 new lights, along with lights draped over zig-zagging” between Sixth and Eighth streets, Vandersommen said. “The lighting along this corridor has been poor for a long time.”

There will be three power connections for vendors at future street festivals.

“There will also be connections for power on top of all the streetlights, for Christmas lights” and other needs, Vandersommen said.

The typical sidewalk width on Broadway is 12 feet now. In the streetscape, that would widen to 20 feet.

There will be traffic islands by the intersections of Broadway and West Erie at the north end, and Ninth Street at the south end.

There will be gateway signs at both ends. The signs are identical to those in the 2015 drawings, “and they are the eye catchers,” Vandersommen said.

Broadway will have one lane of travel in each direction. That is a reduction from three lanes in some stretches.

There will be a threeway stop at the intersection of West Sixth Street and Broadway.

“We expect this will make that intersection safer,” Vandersommen said.

For several years, city residents periodically have complained about safety of walkers at that intersection, which is the closest one to the Lorain Palace Theater, 617 Broadway.

Previously, there was a stoplight at the intersection, but it was removed as part of the city’s effort to reduce the number of traffic control lights.

There will be colored and stamped concrete in front of the theater.

Landscaping is part of the plans, which show trees growing from six-footby-12-foot planters with raised edges, and six-footby-six-foot tree planter pits with edges flush with the sidewalk surface.

The project will fill in the underground vaults of building basements that extend under the sidewalks and street surface, Vandersommen said.

That element of the streetscape will not be visible, but will make the street safer for pedestrians, he said.