Kokomo — A 50-year downtown experiment comes to an end Saturday, as Kokomo city officials are expected to open Walnut and Sycamore streets to two-way traffic.
Both streets have been one way through the core downtown district since the 1950s.
The move to two-way traffic comes as the city nears the finish of close to $1 million worth of downtown infrastructure improvements.
Wednesday, city officials called the two-way traffic on Walnut and Sycamore “the most dramatic change for motorists,” but drivers downtown will also notice the prominent “bump-outs.”
The city has redone 44 downtown corners, demolishing the old corners and installing new concrete pedestrian curb ramps surrounded by planting beds.
Hundreds of parking meters have been removed, 11 traffic signals have been replaced by stop signs, and decorative street signs have also been installed.
City officials hope the improvements will make downtown more pedestrian-friendly, and attractive to small business.
Since the infrastructure work began, the city has seen seven small businesses move downtown.
City engineer Carey Stranahan said Wednesday the move to two-way traffic on Walnut and Sycamore should happen late Saturday, after resurfacing work on both streets is finished.
Stranahan said he isn’t worried about motorists figuring out the new change.
“Are we going to make it less safe by making it the way people think it should be anyway? I don’t think so,” Stranahan said. “It’s safer to move a street from one-way to two-way than it is to move it the other way.”
In all, the city is set to spend $908,000 on the work.
The city expected to spend about $12,000 reconfiguring the signal intersections at Sycamore and Washington streets, Walnut and Washington, and at Sycamore and Apperson Way.
The street work, contracted to E and B Paving, began April 26 and all of the work is expected to be finished by the June 3 downtown Strawberry Festival.
The resurfacing work will be paid mainly from federal and state gas tax dollars. The sidewalk work will be paid from federal block grant funds and from the city’s sewer utility, since the work involves replacing catch basins at each corner.
“If you drive downtown and don’t pay any attention to what’s happening at the corners, you’d see the streets aren’t in good shape, and haven’t been in good shape for some time,” Stranahan said. “This is work that needs to be done.”
Stranahan said the city saved about $100,000 by not hiring a consultant to do design work, another $100,000 by doing the milling in-house, and another $50,000 by not contracting out the work to remove parking meters and traffic signals.
Avoiding the cost of maintaining and replacing the signals is expected to save the city $77,000, Stranahan said.
• Scott Smith is a Kokomo Tribune staff writer. He may be reached at 765-454-8569 or via e-mail at scott.smith@kokomotribune.com
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