One way or another: Changes to traffic patterns on Fourth, Adams stalled until spring

A delay in the arrival of construction materials will mean the city won't convert a stretch of Fourth Street to two-way traffic until the spring.

The delay also holds up the conversion of Adams Street where Springfield drivers will experience a first between Sixth and Ninth streets: back-in-only parking on the south side of the street.

The traffic engineering department will need to put down permanent markings on both streets and as delays persisted with signs and other materials, the city decided to push back the entire project, said T.J. Heavisides, the city's chief traffic engineer.

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The city had hoped to finish the project by June minus any supply chain demands.

The downtown area also is getting a new centralized traffic management system that will keep signals better coordinated, Heavisides said.

The cost of the project is $4.6 million and is being coordinated by Egizii Electric. The funding comes from Rebuild Illinois through the increase of the state motor fuel tax.

Fourth Street will become two-way from South Grand Avenue to Dodge Street, about a 1.6-mile stretch.

Issues with some subcontractors on orders for signs pushed back the project further than anticipated, Heavisides said. "One way" and "do not enter" signs would need to come down and signage on southbound approaches to one-way streets, like Monroe, Washington, Jefferson, and Madison streets would need to go up, he said.

Traffic signals facing southbound on Fourth Street have already been installed, Heavisides said.

As it got later into the year, the city ran into temperature restrictions for permanent marking of the streets, replacing white lines with solid yellow lines, Heavisides said. The idea of doing temporary striping was considered, but the department didn't want to do anything that could fade throughout the winter or lead to any confusion for motorists, he added.

Workers, Heavisides said, generally have to wait until the temperature gets above 50 degrees and the weather is dry for the pavement markings to take effect.

Heavisides said in other areas of the country where there were conversions to two-way streets there was a slowdown of traffic, and it had a positive impact on foot traffic, "so there was a positive economic impact."

Downtown Springfield, Inc. and the city's Office of Planning and Economic Development were involved in the plan reaching out to downtown businesses.

For the most part, parking on both sides of Fourth Street will remain the same, though restrictions from Carpenter to Dodge streets have been in place for over a year.

"There may be a few limited spaces that get removed, spaces that may have been too close to the intersection before, to begin with," Heavisides said. "There is code for how far you have to be from the intersections, so there may be an odd space or two that gets removed."

The back-in parking on Adams is mostly for safety reasons, Heavisides acknowledged.

"We don't have any in town like that, but we have heard there is some safety improvement you get from that," he said. "It's much easier to see pulling out than it is backing out of it. During a public meeting, it was interesting that people were really hesitant about having to back into a parking space until I explained to them that in downtown, we have parallel parking everywhere and you back into a parallel spot."

Peoria had back-in-only parking on Fulton Street near City Hall for years before lifting it this spring because of its unpopularity.

Parallel parking on the north side of Adams will remain in place.

P.J. Staab said he favored the Fourth Street project, especially if it helped downtown merchants.

But Staab, the president of Staab Funeral Homes, was more wary about continued street parking. Traffic from the funeral home's parking lot empties onto Fourth Street from the west.

"I just think there needs to be extreme caution in some areas," he said. "Safety is important. Signage, too."

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Keith Loukinen, one of the owners of Loukinens' on 4th and a chef at the restaurant, said he was also supportive of the two-way street.

The restaurant has a parking lot for patrons, who also use street parking.

"There are numerous times where we have multiple streets or roads closed for events and it makes it hard for people in and out of local businesses, so I think it will help out everybody," Loukinen said.

Steven Zimmerman, the shop manager at A-1 Corporate Hardware at Fourth and Washington streets, said some of its customers have asked about the changes.

"When we tell them they're converting this to a two-way (street), it's always the same (reply): 'Why in the heck would they do that?'" Zimmerman said. "I guess I don't see where it makes traffic any better or timelines any better. The number of accidents we see on Fourth and Washington alone, going to two-way is going to be just as bad.

"There are probably some benefits to it that I'm not seeing."

The technology upgrade to Fourth Street preceded Mayor Misty Buscher's administration, but the Springfield mayor said recently that the city needs to remain flexible on the usage of streets, especially with growth or changes in neighborhoods.

"There are always going to be changes and we have to embrace those changes," Buscher said. "We have to make sure our community is safe (and) our visitors are safe, but changes are good."

Work, Heavisides said, continues on the traffic cabinets downtown. The old traffic management system was on a server that is no longer functional, he added, so a lot of the signals were losing their timing.

That's why drivers going through the downtown area on one-way streets sometimes hit successive red lights instead of them being coordinated better, he said.

"On a grid like this, you're never going to get all of the streets coordinated perfectly, but the major streets, we've got them lined out to be pretty well coordinated," Heavisides said.

As for traffic pattern changes on both Fourth and Adams streets when they do take effect, vigilance will be a key for drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists.

"It will take some getting used to," Heavisides said, "in the weeks and months ahead."

Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788; sspearie@sj-r.com; X, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Two-way conversions of Fourth and Adams streets in Springfield delayed