By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
For nearly two years, local motorists have dodged downtown construction and slowed for bumpy patched up streets.
But when downtown Bowling Green is repaved later this year, residents will not only notice a much smoother surface, but also a few other changes.
One change will take place right in the center of the downtown – at the four corners intersection of Main and Wooster streets. The intersection will once again be laid in brick, as it was after the Heritage 2000 project downtown.
However, this time the brick will not cover the entire intersection surface. Instead, there will be four quadrants of bricks, with concrete along the outer edges and concrete forming a plus-sign in the center. The bricks will form four squares at the intersection.
The reason for the change is that bricking the entire intersection results in bricks coming loose when heavy loads drove over, especially when vehicles made turns, according to Assistant Municipal Administrator Joe Fawcett.
“We don’t want projectiles” from the bricks, Fawcett said on Friday.
The paving is expected to take place sometime late this summer or early fall, following two summers of constant construction downtown – first for gas line work, then for water lines.
City officials didn’t want to pave in between the construction projects, since it would just be torn up again – so the paving will be a welcome change to many local motorists.
Another change planned downtown at the same time is the elimination of a crosswalk at the intersection of North Main Street and Court Street.
The Bowling Green Traffic Commission agreed earlier this week to get rid of the northern crosswalk at that intersection, while preserving the southern crosswalk.
The reason for the change is pedestrian safety at the jagged intersections, since Court Street has a jog as it crosses North Main Street.
“We’ve driven that intersection as everybody has,” Fawcett said. “There’s a conflict point. It can create a safety issue.”
The city also plans to remove the “no turn on red” signs at both East and West Court Street intersections with North Main Street.
“That becomes a bottleneck issue,” that the city hopes to ease, Fawcett said.
