Tamarind Ave. gets a little love

Tamarind Avenue, one of the city’s seediest byways, is undergoing a makeover.

The city commission is scheduled to vote Monday on the second phase of a project to make the street safer for pedestrians and bicyclists and better looking.

The project, just north of downtown, will stretch from Banyan Boulevard to Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard and will include lighting, landscaping, new sidewalks and other features.

City Comprehensive Planner Alex Hansen said Friday the project is part of a larger plan to update the neglected Tamarind corridor, which runs beside the CSX railroad tracks through some of West Palm Beach’s poorest neighborhoods.

Working from north to Tony Doris south, the city completed the section from 25th Street to Palm Beach Lakes two years ago.

The project is funded by the Florida Department of Transportation, Palm Beach Metropolitan Planning Organization, the city and the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency.

It’s the little things that matter, such as sidewalks. In this case, the city will be adding sidewalks on the west side of Tamarind, between Banyan and Sixth Street. There’s no sidewalk there now. “So people are walking next to the railroad tracks, or along the railroad tracks, or over the railroad tracks,” Hansen said.

The street will get new lighting fixtures, trees and other greenery and crosswalks. Some electrical poles on the east side will be removed and wires put underground. There’ll be new street furniture, from benches to bike racks and trash receptacles.

“Sharrows” will be placed in the street, markings that indicate areas where motorists are expected to share the road with bicyclists.

The project aims to improve the connections between downtown economic centers, bus and train stations, UB Kinsey Elementary School and the entire depressed section of the city, where a number of economic development projects are contemplated.

Coming up next, the city is working on ideas for the section from Banyan to Okeechobee Boulevard. That’s another area missing sidewalks on its west side, and where the road design could be improved to make bicycling safer, Hansen said.