The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Broadway streetscape begins
Work underway on long-awaited Lorain project
The Broadway streetscape project has begun.
The long-awaited renovation of Broadway will change the sidewalks, signage, lighting and traffic patterns from West Erie Avenue to Ninth Street.
But this winter, Karvo Companies, of Stow, started the project not with new pavement, but with work in basements.
The company has crews shoring up the underground vaults that extend beneath the sidewalk from the basements of buildings along Broadway.
“That way, when the weather breaks, they can get going on the sidewalk work,” said Lorain City Engineer Dale Vandersommen.
Much of the work is underground, although observers will see heavy equipment parked along the sidewalks on Broadway in the project area.
“In the spring, that’s when they’ll really get going on some of the more aesthetic portions of the project,” Vandersommen said.
The crews clean out the vaults and fill in the empty voids to support the sidewalk and street above.
Spaces are filled with concrete poured into forms and cured in place.
“It’s the most popular way to do basement walls on new construction these days,” Vandersommen said about that method.
Pictures of the steps involved are posted at a web page that the City Engineering Department created to mark progress of the Broadway streetscape.
It is posted at cityoflorain.org.
“We’ve been receiving questions about what’s happening, and when it’s going to happen,” Vandersommen said.
“We thought this was an efficient way to disseminate that information.”
The website is a good idea because downtown business owners want to know the progress and dates for planning, said Jim Long, president of the Lorain Growth Corp.-Main Street Lorain.
The city Engineering Department has several web pages devoted to large or continuing projects in the city.
Other examples include utilities work, the Lower Black River restoration and roadway rehabilitations.
The Broadway streetscape generally will widen sidewalks from 12 feet to 20 feet; there also will be additional signage for the road.
Based on those factors, it appeared Broadway will lose some on-street parking due to the streetscape.
As of Feb. 13, counting the exact number of current on-street parking spaces was difficult due to snow, ice and generally wet conditions covering parking space lines on the street.
Some cars were parked in areas that did not match marked spaces visible on the street or on aerial photos maintained by Google Maps.
Even so, it appeared the east side of Broadway had at least 57 on-street parking spaces, with at least 62 on the west side, from West Erie Avenue to 10th Street, based on an informal count by The Morning Journal.
In the streetscape plans, it appeared Broadway would have 50 on-street parking spaces on the east side and 62 spaces on the west side when the project is complete.
“One of the key design elements was the widening (of sidewalks) from an average of 12 feet to 20 feet,” Vandersommen said. “We tried to replicate the parking as closely as possible.”
Broadway streetscape plan shows where the sidewalks bump out to become even wider at intersections.
The road lane has the same width, but the bump out area creates a narrower distance for walkers.
“We did that so it would be safer for pedestrians to cross,” Vandersommen said.
The sidewalk bump out areas and foundations for new entryway signs will take up some on-street parking, said Terry Kushinski, owner of Kush’s Custom Cabinetry at 842 and 846 Broadway.
The downtown merchants rely on available onstreet parking for customers, Kushinski said.
But it appears the current plans keep more on-street parking than previous versions.
“It’s not like it’s going to be totally gone, from what I’m seeing,” Kushinski said. “I like this layout look a lot more than what the preliminary plan was.”
Part of the plans include improved signage to let visitors know where off-street parking is, Long said.
Sidewalk improvements will begin in the spring, but there is no firm date for the beginning of that part of the project.
The sidewalk reconstruction will take place in two phases, Vandersommen said.
Work will begin on the west side of Broadway and Karvo Companies will maintain one lane of traffic in each direction.
When that sidewalk is completed, the company will move to the east side of Broadway.