City reconfiguring Lincoln/Berkley intersection
Jun. 8—Now that school is out for the summer, a reconfiguration of the lanes at Lincoln and Berkley roads is set to begin this week.
In an effort to lessen the possibility of crashes at the intersection and make the lane configuration easier to navigate, the city will designate the left lanes on Lincoln Road as strictly left-turn lanes. Currently, the left lanes at that intersection are a left turn and straight lane.
The right lanes on Lincoln Road, currently a right-turn only, will become a straight and right-turn lane. To accommodate the change, the roads there will also be widened a bit so the lanes can be aligned, and new stop lights reflecting the change will also be installed.
Construction is set to begin this week and last approximately 90 days. During the construction, the intersection will be closed. The project will cost approximately $500,000, with 80% being paid for with federal funds and the remaining 20% with city funds.
Jon Pyke, head of the city engineer department, said the change will hopefully reduce the chances of an accident at the intersection.
"When someone's turning left, the people wanting to go straight are supposed to wait, but there's not a dedicated left turn lane ... so what happens is people get frustrated waiting for people wanting to turn left so they go in the right turn only, and the oncoming traffic thinks they're turning right and they don't," Pyke said. "We haven't had a lot of accidents there, but we've a lot of near misses."
Tyler Juranovich can be reached at 765-454-8577, by email at tyler.juranovich@kokomotribune.com or on Twitter at @tylerjuranovich.
