Common Council approves USI study of East Jefferson/Lincolnway East

Monday night the Plymouth Board of Public Works and Safety approved an agreement with USI Consultants for a three-month “Road Diet” study of East Jefferson Street including Lincolnway East on the east side of Plymouth.

The $40,000 project will explore potential “road diet” alternatives along East Jefferson Street/Lincolnway East, spanning approximately 2.5 miles from the eastern to western Plymouth City limits.  The study will assess strategies to reduce the existing pavement width and optimize available right-of-way to enhance pedestrian accessibility, safety, and comfort.  Key focus areas include pedestrian safety improvements at the East Jefferson Street and North Liberty Street intersection and the East Jefferson Street and Lincolnway East intersection.

During the meeting, City Engineer Dan Seller said, “This is an engineering assessment study with the purpose of identifying proposed safety enhancements including pedestrian and handicap accessibility safety as well as comfort within the existing available right-of-way.” The city engineer said they are focusing the study on Jefferson Street from the east side of town to the west side of town.  They will look at potential pavement width reductions.

The city engineer told the council Plymouth was involved with MAGOG on a regional safety review and they discussed the width of the road leading to the propensity of speeding.  Seller said, “This route was actually built to bypass the downtown Plymouth area almost 100 years ago, 1929.”

The engineer said there are schools on both sides of East Jefferson which creates an obstacle for children walking to school.  He said the is a need to have sidewalks on both sides of the street too. 

The goal of the study is to identify a project that could be funded through the INDOT LPA process.  He said most of those are in the $6 million range which would require a 20% local match that would be $1.2 million.   

The $40,000 cost of the study is in the city engineer’s budget. 

Mayor Listenberger the idea came out of a Complete Streets meeting. 

City Engineer Jeff Houin said the study will give the city conceptual ideas for how Jefferson Street and Lincolnway East could be improved in the future. The city is anticipating taking the results of the study and segmenting it into separate projects and then the city can decide which if any to pursue hopefully with federal funding which is typically five years out. 

The USI assessment will take three months to complete and format for federal aid applications.  Those applications typically open in November.